CHINA IN 1989 AND 2015: TIANANMEN, HUMAN

RIGHTS, AND DEMOCRACY

HEARING
BEFORE THE

CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE
COMMISSION ON CHINA
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
JUNE 3, 2015

Printed for the use of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.cecc.gov

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95041 PDF

2015

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CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS
House

Senate

CHRIS SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman

ROBERT PITTENGER, North Carolina
TRENT FRANKS, Arizona
RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois
TIM WALZ, Minnesota
MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio
MICHAEL HONDA, California
TED LIEU, California

MARCO RUBIO, Florida, Cochairman

SHERROD BROWN, Ohio
DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon
GARY PETERS, Michigan

EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS

CHRISTOPHER P. LU, Department of Labor
SARAH SEWALL, Department of State
STEFAN M. SELIG, Department of Commerce
DANIEL R. RUSSEL, Department of State
TOM MALINOWSKI, Department of State
PAUL B. PROTIC, Staff Director
ELYSE B. ANDERSON, Deputy Staff Director

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CO N T E N T S
STATEMENTS
Page

Opening Statement of Hon. Christopher Smith, a U.S. Representative from

New Jersey; Chairman, Congressional-Executive Commission on China .......
Teng, Biao, a Well-known Chinese Human Rights Lawyer; a Harvard University Law School Visiting Scholar; and Co-founder, the Open Constitution
Initiative ...............................................................................................................
Peng, Lisa, Daughter of Chinese Democracy Activist Peng Ming; Freshman,
Harvard University; and TEDx Speaker ............................................................
Ho, Pin, President and CEO, Mirror Media Group ..............................................
Horowitz, Michael, CEO, 21st Century Initiative, a Washington, DC Think
Tank ......................................................................................................................
Yang, Jianli, President, Initiatives for China/Citizen Power for China ..............

1
5
7
9
14
18

APPENDIX
PREPARED STATEMENTS
Teng, Biao ................................................................................................................
Peng, Lisa .................................................................................................................
Ho, Pin ......................................................................................................................
Yang, Jianli ..............................................................................................................
Smith, Hon. Christopher, a U.S. Representative From New Jersey; Chairman,
Congressional-Executive Commission on China ................................................
Rubio, Hon. Marco, a U.S. Senator From Florida; Cochairman, CongressionalExecutive Commission on China ........................................................................
SUBMISSION

FOR THE

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Witness Biographies ................................................................................................

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CHINA IN 1989 AND 2015: TIANANMEN, HUMAN

RIGHTS, AND DEMOCRACY
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015

CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE
COMMISSION ON CHINA,
Washington, DC.
The hearing was convened, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m., in
room HVC210, Capitol Visitor Center, Representative Christopher
Smith, Chairman, presiding.
Also present: Representatives Randy Hultgren and Trent Franks.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CHRISTOPHER SMITH, A U.S.
REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW JERSEY, CHAIRMAN, CONGRESSIONALEXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA

Chairman SMITH. The meeting of the Commission will come to

order, and good morning to everybody. Thank you for being here.
Twenty-six years ago, the world watched as millions of Chinese
gathered to peacefully demand political reform and democratic
openness. The hopes and promises of those heady days ended with
wanton violence, tears, bloodshed, arrests, and exile. Mothers lost
sons, fathers lost daughters, and China lost an idealistic generation
to the tanks that rolled down Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
Tiananmen Square has come to symbolize the persistent and
brutal lengths the Chinese Communist Party will go to remain in
power. This event has done more to negatively shape global perceptions of China than any other in recent history.
We remember the Tiananmen Square massacre here in Congress
because of its enduring impact on U.S.-China relations. We remember it also because an unknown number of people died, were arrested, and exiled simply for seeking universally recognized human
rights and freedoms.
We also remember Tiananmen Square because so many people
were arrested last year for trying to commemorate the anniversary
in China. We remember this date each year because it is too important to forget and because it is too dangerous to commemorate in
the Peoples Republic of China.
The Chinese Government should allow open discussion on the
Tiananmen protests and end the enforced amnesia surrounding the
events of 1989, and more importantly, the Chinese Government
should take responsibility for this needless national tragedy that
occurred on June 3 and 4, and continued as people were hunted
down. Those who had fax machines were followed, arrested, and incarcerated.
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Sadly, it seems that a China led by President Xi Jinping will not
take such responsibility. President Xi and top Communist Party
leaders regularly unleash bellicose attacks on universal values,
Western ideals, and revisionism of the Partys history.
The domestic screws on dissent have tightened considerably since
Xi Jinping assumed the presidency. Over 230 people have been detained for their human rights advocacy and peaceful efforts at political reform. A number of rights groups are calling this the largest
crackdown in two decades.
The Chinese Government rounds up not only reformers, but
those who defend them. It views most Uyghurs as security threats
and then jails Uyghur intellectuals peacefully seeking ethnic reconciliation. It not only smothers Internet freedom and its domestic
media, but threatens foreign journalists and spurs self-censorship
from Harvard Square to Hollywood.
The Chinese Government also threatens foreign citizens or foreign institutions who speak out for greater human rights. The family members of Canadas Miss Universe, for example, were threatened for her outspokenness about human rights.
Also, Chinas new and troubling NGO [non-governmental organization] law could bar an American university from China, or even
detain its representatives in China, if a campus student group
stages a protest in the United States against the Chinese Governments treatment of Tibetans, Christians, or Falun Gong, the detention of Liu Xiaobo, or the criminal tragedy of Chinas 35-year
one-child-per-couple policy, with its reliance on forced sterilization
and forced abortion.
U.S. policy must support Chinese advocates who promote human
rights and political reform and stand firm for U.S. interests and
greater freedom and democracy in China. Our strategic and moral
interests coincide when we support human rights and democracy in
China. A more democratic China, one that respects human rights
and is governed by the rule of law, is more likely to be a productive
and peaceful partner rather than a strategic and hostile competitor.
We should remember this fact as we watch China building bases
and threatening free and open sea lanes in the East and South
China Seas. The United States must also make strong appeals to
Chinas self-interest; the rule of law, freedom of the press, and
independent judiciary; a flourishing civil society; and accountable
officials who would promote all of Chinas primary goals: economic
progress, political stability, reconciliation with Taiwan, good relations with America and the rest of the world, and international
stature and influence.
At the same time, the United States must also be willing to use
political and economic sanctions to respond to gross violations of
human rights in China, torture, prolonged and arbitrary detention,
forced abortions, psychiatric experimentation or organ harvesting
from prisoners.
That is why I introduced yesterday the China Human Rights
Protection Act of 2015, H.R. 2621. This bill will deny U.S. entry
visas and issue financial penalties to any Chinese official who engages in gross violations of human rights.

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I would note parenthetically that in 2000 I authored a Foreign
Relations Act and it contained a provision that we put in that said
that anyone who is complicit in forced abortion and forced sterilization can be denied, and must be denied, entry into the United
States.
Sadly, the administration has notand I repeat, notenforced
that law. We will continue to ask them to simply follow the rule
of law here and preclude access to the United States by those who
abuse women in such a horrific way.
The United States must show leadership in this regard and it
must send a very strong message. The worst violators of the rights
of the Chinese people, those who abuse universal freedom with impunity, should not prosper from access to the United States and
our economic or political freedoms. Again, this new bill would cover
all the gross human rights violators and, again, preclude their
entry to the United States.
It is tempting to be pessimistic about Chinas future and the future of U.S.-China relations. I am not a pessimistic person, but I
am hopeful. Constant repression has not dimmed the desires of the
Chinese people for freedom and reform. While the hopes of the
Tiananmen Square demonstrators have not yet been realized, their
demands for universal freedoms continue to inspire Chinese people
today and it has passed on to a new generation.
We have with us today participants of the Tiananmen protests
of 1989 and new generations of advocates for democratic openness
and for human rights. They fight for universal freedoms. They fight
for the release of their families, their fathers. And they fight for reform and a future China that protects human rights. It is the new
generation that will inspire change in China.
I believe that someday China will be free. Someday the people
of China will be able to enjoy all of their God-given rights, and a
nation of free Chinese men and women will honor, applaud, and
celebrate the heroes of Tiananmen Square and all of those who sacrificed so much, for so long, for freedom.
I would like to now introduce our very distinguished panel to this
Commission hearing, beginning with, first, Dr. Teng Biao, who is
a well-known Chinese human rights lawyer, a Harvard University
Law School Visiting Scholar, and Co-founder of the Open Constitution Initiative.
Dr. Teng holds a Ph.D. from Peking University Law School. As
a human rights lawyer, he is a promoter of the Rights Defense
Movement and a co-initiator of the New Citizens Movement. In
2003, he was one of the Three Doctors of Law who complained
to the National Peoples Congress about unconstitutional detentions of internal migrants, and he has provided counsel in numerous other human rights cases.
We will then hear from Lisa Peng, who is the daughter of Chinese human rights and pro-democracy activist Mr. Peng Ming, who
was kidnapped in Burma by Chinese secret police and sentenced to
life in prison in 2004. Lisa is currently a freshman at Harvard. She
was born in Beijing and suffered doubly as a second child by being
denied official legal recognition. As we all know, that is one of the
ways that they impose sanctions on those who have a second-order
birth, as they call it.

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In 2000, her family fled the government persecution and was accepted by the United States as UN refugees in 2001. Lisa continues
to work with the ChinaAid Association, the State Department, and
Members of Congress to advocate for the release of her father and
other prisoners of conscience.
We will then hear from Ho Pin, a journalist and director of the
News Department at Shenzhen News, who is originally from
Hunan and participated in the 1989 movement. Ho left China for
Canada after Chinese authorities started investigating him because
of his writings and analysis of political events in China.
Ho Pin established the Mirror Media Group in Canada in 1991
and the Chinese news website Duowei News in 1999. Mirror Media
currently includes five independent publishing houses, five magazines, three websites, a bookstore, and an online bookstore. Ho Pin
has worked in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan with news
as a reporter, editor, and executive.
We will then hear and welcome back for a return trip, a man
who has been a great staunch defender of human rights and a
great thinker, strategic thinker, Michael Horowitz, CEO of the 21st
Century Initiative, who has led a broad range of human rights coalitions and has played major roles in the passage of such human
rights legislation as the International Religious Freedom Act, the
North Korea Human Rights Act, the Trafficking Victims Protection
Act, and the Sudan Peace Act, just to name a few.
Mr. Horowitz has been especially active on behalf of Tibetan
Buddhists, Christians, Falun Gong believers, and Uyghur Muslims.
He has also provided vital assistance to the organizations dedicated
to fighting Internet censorship and penetrating Chinas Great Firewall.
He served as general counsel of the Office of Management and
Budget during the Reagan administration and again has provided
this Commission and the Human Rights subcommittees in both the
House and the Senate with tremendous insight and counsel over
the many years.
We will then hear from Dr. Yang Jianli, who is a scholar and
democracy activist internationally recognized for his efforts to promote democracy in China. He has been involved in the pro-democracy movement in China since the 1980s and was forced to flee
China in 1989 after the Tiananmen Square massacre. In 2002, Dr.
Yang returned to China to support the labor movement and was
imprisoned by the Chinese authorities for alleged espionage and illegal entry.
Following his release in 2007 and his subsequent return to the
United States, Dr. Yang founded Initiatives for China, also known
as Citizen Power for China, a non-governmental organization that
promises Chinas peaceful transition to democracy. Again, he, too,
has provided tremendous insights over the years to this Commission, as well as to the Human Rights committees in the House and
the Senate.
I would like to now ask Dr. Teng Biao if he would proceed.

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STATEMENT OF TENG BIAO, A WELL-KNOWN CHINESE HUMAN
RIGHTS LAWYER; HARVARD UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL VISITING SCHOLAR; AND COFOUNDER, THE OPEN CONSTITUTION INITIATIVE

Mr. TENG. Thank you very much. Twenty-six years have passed,
but the killing did not end in 1989. Many interested citizens labeled Tiananmen thugs have been executed in custody and repatriation centers, detention centers, prisons, reeducation through
labor camps, and various black jails; countless deaths have been
due to state violence.
Citizens die at the scenes of forced demolitions or enter the iron
face of civil city management. Since 1999, at least 3,860 Falun
Gong practitioners have been clearly tortured to death. Since 2009,
at least 140 Tibetans have self-immolated in protest of the authorities brutal domination.
As the activists are captured and tortured, the gunfire of
Tiananmen is echoing in the background. The Tiananmen massacre
sustained the Party system, since the Party showed its two faces
in 1989, and its rough treatment of the Chinese people has become
even more brazen.
Partly because of not having unions and not having the freedom
to assemble and go on strike, there is the advantage of the lack of
human rights through government collusion and extreme eco-redistribution, China has achieved rapid economic rise. But many social
and political problems are behind this economic growth: pollution,
ecological crises, and widespread unsafe food products, corruption,
and clashes between citizens and authorities.
The Chinese Government has never stopped its crackdown on
peoples resistance. Since Xi Jinping came to power, he has issued
a harsh, comprehensive crackdown. More than 1,500 human rights
defenders have been arrested and detained. Some of them were
brave enough to promote political activities, but many focus only on
rural libraries, LGBT rights, and so on.
Internet censorship is increasingly strict. Document No. 9 reflects the severe control over ideology in universities, the Internet,
and the media. Gao Yu, a 70-year-old renowned journalist, was
sentenced to seven years, accused of leaking state secrets.
Three important laws have been drafted and will pass soon. The
State Security Law, Ccounterterrorism Law, and Foreign NGO
Management Law. This law legitimizes human rights violations.
Foreign NGOs will be seriously affected and many will have to
leave China.
Public security bureaus inside of the civil affairs bureaus will be
given the power to ratify and supervise foreign NGOs. The counterterrorism law requires Western IT companies to provide encryption
keys and source codes.
More recently, a Uyghur Muslim was sentenced to six years in
Kashgar for refusing to shave off his beard and his wife was imprisoned for two years for wearing a burqa.
The Panchen Lama has been disappeared for 20 years. Some relatives and friends of Tibetan self-immolators were detained and
sentenced for assisting in the self-immolation.
Christian churches were destroyed and some pastors were jailed.
Falun Gong and other religious group members were detained and

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tortured, imprisoned in legal education centers and other black
jails. Many lawyers were harassed when challenging the legal education centers, with at least four of them suffering broken ribs from
beatings. More forced demolitions have happened and petitioners
are facing harsher punishments than before.
In general, the current comprehensive crackdown is seen as the
worst since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. I do not deny
that there are some improvements and reforms, but the major driving force for these changes and reforms has been the people, as a
result of probing, pressure, and prices paid by the rights lawyers,
democracy activists, and other human rights defenders.
There must be something wrong with the petitioners and business people. So as to not inflame the Chinese Communist Party,
they do not dare to meet with the Dalai Lama. To gain Chinese
markets, they disregard violations of human rights. To receive
large orders for goods, they, one after another, adopt appeasement
policies toward the Communist autocratic regime. Democratic countries join in the AIIB [Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank].
Beijing watchers and the researchers self-censor, even to the
point that they defend despotism. But now is the time for the West
to re-think and adjust its policies toward China. A strong, repressive political power is threatening not just the Chinese people, but
the entire world. Only promoting a truly free China comports with
the long-term interests of humanity.
The Chinese Communist Party [CCP] will not last forever, but
the Chinese people will continue to live on that soil. The day will
come when the United States must deal with todays Chinese prisoners of conscience locked away and filled with suffering, Liu
Xiaobo, Xu Zhiyong, Ilham Tohti, Pu Zhiqiang, and others.
Last, some recommendations. First, pass an act to prohibit Chinese perpetrators who are responsible for human rights violations
from entering the United States and other democratic countries.
Support Chinese human rights defenders, political prisoners, and
real NGOs. Give a voice to permanent activists, just as the West
has done with the Dalai Lama, Liu Xiaobo, and Hu Jia.
Stop the cooperation with the Chinese Governments organized
NGOs, or GONGOs, which are helping the Chinese Government to
suppress human rights and freedom, for example, the All China
Lawyers Association and the Chinese Human Rights Association.
Make sure that the Confucius Institute, scholars and students,
federations and other government-sponsored programs do not violate academic freedom and human rights. Punish the American
companies and individuals who have cooperated with the CCP to
suppress freedom and human rights. Help to develop technology to
circumvent Internet censorship.
After 26 years, the symbolism and meaning inherent in that
world-famous picture still needs understanding. A young person,
solitary, standing in front of a tank has communicated the terror
and blackness of tyranny and communicated the Chinese peoples
brave resistance to tyranny. History will require us to answer one
question: Do we stand on the side of the tank man or on the side
of the tank? Thank you very much for hearing me. Your ideas, your
voices, and your votes will influence China and bring more freedom
and human rights to this planet.

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Chairman SMITH. Dr. Teng, thank you very much for your testimony, for your very specific recommendations, and again, we deeply appreciate, on the Commission, your input, especially as we prepare the next iteration of our report, which hopefully will bear
truth to power and speak truth to power in Beijing and anywhere
else where there is a willing listener. So, thank you so very much.
I would like to now ask Lisa Peng if she would provide her testimony.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Teng appears in the appendix.]
STATEMENT OF LISA PENG, DAUGHTER OF CHINESE DEMOCRACY ACTIVIST PENG MING, FRESHMAN AT HARVARD, AND
TEDx SPEAKER

Ms. PENG. Honorable Chairman and members of the Commission, thank you for inviting me to testify at todays hearing on Chinese authorities treatment of democracy and human rights. These
are the values all of us here have the freedom to discuss today, but
the same values for which my father, Peng Ming, is serving a life
sentence in China.
Two years ago, I debated at the City Club of Clevelands High
School Debate Championship on the topic of whether the United
States is justified in intervening in the internal political processes
of other countries to stop human rights abuses.
Each year, the City Club of Cleveland provides two high school
debaters the opportunity to debate in a room historically renowned
for celebrating the freedom of speech. As I researched the topic of
human rights abuses in preparation for the debate, I learned about
the moral obligation of countries to protect human rights and the
fundamental role human rights ought to play in foreign relations.
I realized that despite such a moral obligation, it is easy to stand
by as human rights are abused; it is easy to passively accept
human suffering. This topic was personal for me because my father
is serving a life sentence in a Chinese prison, branded a criminal
by the Chinese Government because of his work advocating for
human rights.
My journey to advocate for the release of my father and for
human rights in China began two years ago with a debate topic
that piqued my interest in learning about those rights and about
my own father. I had always known that I am his mirror image
and that we both share a love for the art of debate, but beyond that
I did not know much else; after all, my last memory of him is from
11 years ago. Thus, I began to piece together a timeline of my fathers life and my familys journey of escape to America.
My father is an environmentalist, an economist, and a human
rights activist. He is the author of The Fourth Landmark, a book
on Chinas economic and political growth that was sponsored by the
Ford Foundation. He was also the founder of China Development
Union, a think tank established to address the censored topics of
rule of law and human rights.
However, in 1999, the Chinese Government shut down his think
tank and sentenced him to 18 months of labor camp. His crime?
Passionately advocating for human rights and freedom in China.
Upon his release, the government wire tapped our house, began
following our car, and even threatened my father with a second ar-

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rest. It became too dangerous to continue living in China and so
my family decided to flee political persecution.
We eventually made it to Thailand, where we were granted UN
refugee status. On August 29, 2001, we landed in the United
States, the land that stood for us as a beacon of freedom, human
rights, and rule of law. For the first time, we experienced freedom
of expression and justice, not as values confined to an underground
think tank, but rather as values championed by a nation.
In the United States, my father continued his human rights
work. In 2004, he went to Thailand to establish a safe haven for
political refugees. However, he was lured to Myanmar, kidnapped
by Chinese secret police, and quickly sentenced to life in prison.
The UN Working Group for Arbitrary Detention has determined
that the deprivation of my fathers liberty is in contravention to the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Furthermore, my father is
a U.S.-based dissident with UN refugee status who escaped political persecution in China, therefore, his kidnapping is in violation
of non-refoulement which forbids the return of a victim of persecution to his persecutor.
My father has also been deprived of his right to due process, as
he was denied access to a lawyer and a jury of his peers, rights we
take for granted here in the United States.
That debate resolution two years ago prompted my journey to
discover who my father is and the values for which he stands.
While I had the privilege to debate in a room that celebrates the
freedom of speech, my father remains locked in a room built to silence and punish prisoners of conscience.
It has been a decade during which I have been privileged to receive an American education and learn about freedom, democracy,
and justice, but a decade during which my father has remained in
prison with no medical care for fighting to secure those very same
values.
As an American citizen, I cannot merely stand by and passively
accept the denial of these fundamental freedoms. In the past two
years, I have worked with Members of Congress to advocate for my
fathers freedom and for the freedom of thousands of other political
prisoners in China.
Although the support from U.S. Congressmen has given me great
hope for my fathers release, I know that his case is only the tip
of the iceberg. There remain thousands of prisoners of conscience
and innocent Chinese civilians who suffer the same denial of basic
freedoms. If we do not speak up, there will remain no hope for
human rights in China and activists like my father will continue
to suffer.
Sadly, the human rights issue is one that is easily ignored in
light of pressing economic and political concerns. China has become
the worlds second-largest economy and a major trading partner of
the United States. Powerful economic interests want us to turn a
blind eye to Chinas human rights record.
Respecting Americas values and standing up for human rights
has never been easy and it is not easy now, but is that not what
the promise of America is really about? Though I am no politician
or expert in this field, I have learned through debate that human
rights are the foundation from which meaningful and effective dis-

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cussions of economics and politics must proceed. The values and interests are so often not just parallel, but the same.
In fact, these are the same values and fundamental freedoms on
which our great nation was founded. As someone who was rescued,
raised, and educated by this country, I feel that I owe the United
States my utmost gratitude.
However, gratitude for ones country is not demonstrated by passive acceptance of our countrys actions, but in active scrutiny. We
show our love and gratitude for our nation by holding it to the
highest of standards, the standards on which it was founded.
In doing so, I have realized that the issue of human rights is not
only political, it is personal. It is a personal commitment to speak
up, it is a refusal to remain silent, it is acting on the principles
that we read about, write about, and talk about at hearings like
these.
It is the efforts of the Congressional-Executive Commission on
China, Congressman Smith and Senator Rubio, who speak up and
take a stand on human rights that give me hope for the future.
They give me hope for the possibility of telling my father in person
how much we have all cared about him and his dream for Chinas
future. They give me hope for the possibility of securing human
rights in China and for paying the utmost respect to the values on
which our own great country was founded, the values for which I
hope it will always stand.
Thank you.
Chairman SMITH. Ms. Peng, thank you so very much. I can only
say, as a father of two daughters just a little bit older than you,
your father has to be so very proud of you. Thank you for, as you
said, your refusal to remain silent. You have not remained silent.
Frankly, I would never want to debate you. You really are very articulate and very persuasive. Thank you so much.
We now will turn to Mr. Ho Pin for his testimony.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Peng appears in the appendix.]
STATEMENT OF HO PIN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, MIRROR MEDIA
GROUP

Mr. HO. Representative Smith and Senator Rubio, thank you for
giving me the opportunity to stand here today and to give voice to
a brave Chinese journalist, Ms. Gao Yu, who has recently been imprisoned on fictitious charges for the third time. The 71-year-old
Gao Yu merely fulfilled her duty as a journalist and shared the
truth that she knew with the public. Gao Yus case is not isolated.
More and more writers, thinkers, and human rights lawyers are
being illegally detained or imprisoned. This includes the Nobel
Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, economist Ilham Tohti, writer Xu
Zhiyong, lawyer Pu Zhiqiang. The list goes on.
Over the years, many people have stood in this very spot, urging
the world to pay attention to Chinas human rights abuses. But,
this solitary light in the darkness has not been able to illuminate
Chinas blatant violations or pierce through the smog shrouding all
the injustices. Therefore, I do not want to take that route again
and focus solely on Chinas human rights issues or to condemn the
Chinese Government like others have done before. I want to raise
some questions instead.

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With its deteriorating human rights records, why is China getting stronger by the day? Why are Chinese leaders getting more
popular in the international community? Is China building its national strength for the sole purpose of jockeying for the number one
position with the United States? Will China engage in a war with
the United States and its Asian neighbors such as Japan and the
Philippines? Will the world return to a cold war?
These are not new questions. American experts have already provided some answers. Some scholars believe that there is a secret
bamboozling department within the Communist Party. It has designed strategies that have successfully deceived the world and
gained China several decades of time to develop.
Some say the rule of the Chinese Communist Party is already
approaching its end and the regime is on the verge of collapsing.
Others claim that U.S.-China relations have deteriorated to a critical point and that the United States should throw China some
candies to lure it back to the right track.
So what are my views?
First, I believe that China has risen, and it has, as advertised,
risen peacefully. China is the worlds No. 2 economy and has
splashed huge amounts of investment across the globe. Millions of
wealthy Chinese travelers flock to every famous tourist site and
the most expensive department stores. It would be impossible to
close your eyes and ignore Chinas rise. The only thing China has
yet to achieve is the No. 1 position in the world.
At the same time, Chinas rise has not led to any wars. Even
though the Chinese Army has been acting like a belligerent hormone-raging teenager in the South and East China Seas over the
last few years, I dont think the Chinese leadership has plans or
the desire to start a war in Asia. Especially when they are not psychologically prepared to lose a war. The most arrogant and bold
military commanders can merely strike a pose through minor incursions or the intimidation of the militarily weak Philippines.
With the exception of its strategic missile defense systems, which
aim to deter, rather than invade, the Chinese army does not yet
have the ability to project its power around the globe. Even in the
Pacific region, Chinese Navy and Air Forces are not capable of a
sustaining war against Japan and the United States.
In other words, China lacks the ability to launch a large-scale
war in the Pacific theater in the foreseeable future, not to mention
launching a world war like Nazi Germany did. China does not have
the capability, nor the guts. It is not their intention. There is no
Adolf Hitler in China. More importantly, the Chinese leadership
does not see the necessity.
In addition, China has no plans to engage in a cold war with the
West, the United States included. The current political system in
China cannot be defined in conventional terms. It is neither socialism, nor capitalism. It is not an empire in the traditional sense. It
is a mongrel. One of the most famous maxims of Deng Xiaoping
states that It doesnt matter whether a cat is white or black, as
long as it catches mice. Therefore, the end justifies the means.
While this pragmatic philosophy has contributed to Chinas rapid
economic growth, it also turned the Chinese political system into
a two-faced monster the likes of which one normally sees only in

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computer games. Like the legendary cat that has nine lives, it is
adaptable and resilient.
As a consequence, many incomprehensible things have happenedthe ruling Communist Party has defied expectation and
lived on. The government can blatantly repeat something that is
universally acknowledged as lies. For example, the Communist
Party is promoting an anti-West agenda in its internal documents.
The Communist Partys propaganda machine distorts truths about
Western democracies to prevent the pursuit of democratic values by
its citizens and to threaten its citizens who are trying to demand
the rights to select their own leaders, criticize their governments,
and use the law to protect themselves. On the other hand, the
Communist Party has long abandoned socialist theories. Many
leaders are big fans of Western democratic societies. They send
their children to study in the West or secretly help their relatives
who intend to emigrate. Some view the fact that they can visit the
West as a badge of honor. I have met and talked with many Chinese officials when they traveled in the United States, and hardly
anyone was a true opponent of Western values. On the contrary,
they all agree that a democratic system can guarantee fairness and
bring stability to the country.
In other words, the Chinese leaders have no intention of building
another Berlin Wall. Neither do they plan to start a cold war with
the West. They have no desire to impose their systems on the West
because they cannot even define the kind of political system China
has. There is no Stalin in China and nobody wishes to be his disciple. President Xi Jinping has heaped praise on Putin, but his
praise has its own purpose. President Xi admires Putins personal
power. It is true that the Chinese president stood side-by-side with
Putin to inspect the troops in the Red Square a few days ago, but
that doesnt mean that China and Russia can establish an alliance
against the United States. Mistrust of Russia by the Chinese Government and people is deep-seated and hard to dispel.
Third, the conflicts between China and the West are not about
ideology or cultures. The mainstream religion, in China has long
served as a tool to unite all factions of society. Religion, a tamed
pussycat, is becoming an integral part of the Communist Party.
The Chinese are not capable of starting a holy war against the
West. They would not even dare. Nationalism is nothing more than
lip service. The Chinese leaders use this type of neurotic nationalism to cover up their empty and phony ideology. No leaders
would want nationalism to become fanatical and get out of control.
Overheated nationalism could set the house of the Party on fire.
If the above are true, why are we worried? We should not only
be concerned but also alarmed. Its not a matter of which country
will be the worlds number one. The changes in China will impact
the world. If China can integrate itself into the civilized world, in
which peoples rights and self-determination are respected, the
world will enter a new era. Mankind can truly base their thinking
and policies on a common destiny. If the Chinese Communist
Party, with its terrible records on human rights and stellar results
in economic development, is allowed to continue, it will not only
bring disaster to the Chinese people, but also destruction to the
whole world. It is neither an actual war with weapons, nor is it a

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cold war between two ideological camps. It is not a conflict of cultures and value systems. Chinas mongrel and pragmatic nature
has made its system more adaptable and more powerful. Its ability
to destroy the worlds political and biological environments and to
spread such destructive power is beyond even its own expectation.
A virus starts with just a few patients. Soon, it spreads to every
corner, causing a worldwide outbreak. This is what China will do
to the worlddestroy the very foundation of human freedom.
What I want to emphasize is that this is not what the Chinese
leadership envisioned 30 years ago. Neither is it the political ambition of the current leadership. The current situation is the consequence of human weakness, the short-sightedness of politicians
of the West, the insatiable greed of unscrupulous capitalists, and
the distorted social and political structure in China. Together, they
have created such a virus, or at the very least, they have provided
opportunity for it to mutate and spread.
Two months after the Chinese Government brutally cracked
down on the student movement in China on June 4, 1989, President George Bush provided prompt support for Deng Xiaoping
through his secret envoy. The collapse of the former Soviet Union
and East European Communism made many politicians in the
West complacent. They forgave and accepted the paranoid and
humble Chinese leaders. In return, Deng Xiaoping and his successors initiated open door and economic reform policies. These reforms did not bring any political progress. Instead, China took advantage of the technology from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the West
and the benefits of the WTO to boost its economy at the cost of social equality and its environment. Once the Communist Party
strengthened its power through its strong economy, it went on to
undermine Western opposition to Chinas human rights practices.
Now, the Chinese leadership practically does not care at all
about the pressure from Western public opinion because politicians
and businessmen from around the world are salivating at Chinas
immense purchasing power, investment, and markets. It is no exaggeration to say that today, Chinese leaders are the most well-received, honored guests in a majority of countries worldwide; China
is the destination for many of the worlds elite who thirst for gold.
Beijing tightly controls the freedom of the press. They could cut
off Google and Yahoo! anytime; they had refused visas for New
York Times journalists, and blocked access to Twitter and
Facebook. All without impunity. While at the same time, they can
set up any media they would like in the United States. They provide free trips to Chinese language media chieftains in the West to
receive training in China, and they even hire secret hackers to attack independent Chinese media outlets overseas. Ironically,
China, which screens, censors, and bans any print and electronic
publication, has been invited to serve as the country of honor at
book fairs in Frankfurt, London, and New York.
Hollywood is the epitome of free American culture; filmmakers
are free to ridicule, mock, and criticize American politicians and
government officials such as senators, judges, and the president,
without fear of persecution. But in their pursuit of Chinas box office dollars, Hollywood executives have consciously decided to steer
clear of any criticism of the Chinese Government. Despite this,

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American movies are still censored in China, and some are not allowed at all.
Given these circumstances, does Chinas leadership have to risk
it all and start a war? Does China have to close its doors once
again and restart the cold war against the West? They can get everything they need and they can reject everything they do not
want.
The problem lies in the fact that the West pursues short-term
economic interests by ignoring the worsening of Chinese peoples
rights. Western corporations scrambled to do business with China
regardless of the record of human rights violations. A desire for
profit with no social conscience encourages the growth of this new
style of politics in China. It is tantamount to striking the core of
every lesson Chinese officials learned about conducting their political business worldwide. Meanwhile, the cash that the Communist
Party waves in their hands has made it possible for the China
virus to spread unencumbered in the world, causing the value of
Western freedom to grow weaker, feebler, and more and more susceptible to illness.
China was never a threat before. It was the Western world that
has made the Chinese leadership think the West could easily be
threatened.
So what can we conclude? No one can figure it out, because no
one is consciously aware; to a certain extent, we have all been infected by the virus. Otherwise, we would not feel so confused and
lost, so powerless. And because of our inaction and complacency,
Gao Yu, Liu Xiaobo, Ilham Tohti, Wang Bingzhang, Xu Zhiyong,
and Pu Zhiqiang are languishing in prisons. Chinese citizens who
died 26 years ago in Tiananmen Square and now lie in the ground
have turned into lonely ghosts wandering in the wild. Dawn has
yet to arrive in China. If we continue along this muddy, murky
road, we will also be swallowed by the darkness.
The reason that Im standing here today is that the scene I saw
26 years ago in Tiananmen Square still has not faded from my
memory. I share the pain of those who lost friends and relatives
in Tiananmen Square. I firmly believe that things could change if
America were to wake up from its vacant and passive view of
China. America is not a narrow-minded nationalist empire. America represents the values established by people who pursue the
dream of freedom. This means that America is destined to be responsible for people who are pursuing similar dreams in other
countries. I am not advocating war between China and the United
States. I absolutely do not want confrontation between China and
the United States. I do not think it is necessary for another Pearl
Harbor to wake up the American people. I hope that America will
become the driving force for democracy and human rights in China.
The very least we can do is to take actions that will not encourage
the continued growth of a dangerous political virus in China that
values cash more than freedom and human rights. We can, and
should, work to assure the Chinese people their dignity, to assure
a long-term friendship between the United States and China, and
to assure the security of the cornerstone of freedom for the whole
world.
Chairman SMITH. Thank you so very, very much.

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Without objection, I would like to put Mr. Ho Pins April 28 New
York Times op-ed, just a few days ago, into the record, Gao Yus
Real Crime. Without objection, so ordered.
We are joined by Commissioner Randy Hultgren. Randy, thank
you for being here.
We will now go to Michael Horowitz.
[The article appears in the appendix.]
[The prepared statement of Mr. Ho appears in the appendix.]
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL HOROWITZ, CEO, 21ST CENTURY
INITIATIVES, A WASHINGTON, DC THINK TANK

Mr. HOROWITZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is an important

hearing because it sends a signal that efforts to cast the
Tiananmen massacre into the memory hole may nothopefully will
notsucceed. You are keeping the flame, the candle, flickering, and
maybe more than that. That is the purpose of this hearing, and it
means a great deal.
It means a great deal not only because we remember and think
of the bravery and the courage of the people who stood up for democracy, but Congressman Hultgren, I want to say to you what I
have said to Congressman Smith. It really gets to the core strategic
issue of the 21st century.
We talk about terrorism and we have got to focus on it, but the
21st century will largely be defined by one question: Will China become a democracy. If the answer is yes, we will compete in terms
of who builds better cars and computers.
If the answer is no, in a nuclear age particularly, the risks will
be extraordinary, and indeed as to terrorism there will be a protector and defender and financier of terrorists throughout the 21st
century.
I worked in the Reagan administration when the United States
confronted the Soviet Union. I think the risks of China remaining
a dictatorship, for China itself and for the world, greater by orders
of magnitude than they were during the years that Ronald Reagan
tried to deal with the Soviet Union.
And so this hearing, and some of the people here are the people
standing for the hope that the 21st century will not be, God forbid,
bloodier than the 20th has been.
Human rights is the focus here, and what do we do? You have
heard from some of the witnesses, and I know about this in personal terms. My wife, a physician, went to China last year and was
detained by the Chinese to give medical attention to Ju Yufu, a
man in jail for seven years for writing a poem.
I just heard yesterday the awful news and the marker of why
this hearing is important and attention is important. Ju Yufus
wife visited the prison and her visits are being cut down. His phone
calls are not being permitted. Theyre not even giving him medication for some of the grave medical conditions hes confronting, including an aneurysm, vascular sclerosis, enormously high blood
pressure. He is at risk of death and the Chinese are indifferent to
that. And all these other casesLisas case of her father in jail.
Well, what does one do? Let us begin with the fact I believe that
China is the least ideological country in the whole world, and that,
for China, policy is made on a cost/benefit analysis basis. If the

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costs exceed whatever benefits they get for keeping North Korea
alive, for keeping Lisas father in jail, if those costs exceed the benefits, China will change its policy. Ronald Reagan understood that
thats how dictatorships operate and that was the basis on which
he dealt with theI love the word formerformer Soviet Union.
So the first thing it seems to me that needs to happen is that
we must raise our voices about these human rights cases, as Ronald Reagan raised his voice about the Soviet Refuseniks and
Pentecostals. Add to that, Congressman Smith, your visit to Perm
Camp No. 5. These were the kinds of thingsthey were not just
blowing in the wind, they were powerful political forces that ultimately changed history.
Todays silence flies in the face of an American history where
Theodore Roosevelt complained about Soviet pogroms, and Ronald
Reagan and Jimmy Carter raised human rights issues. The fact
that we have abandoned that history sends a signal to China that
it is free to keep these people in jail. We are a country with a history where values and interests have been closely aligned and
when we move away from that equation, dictatorships understand
that they are free to do whatever they want.
So we do not even have the option of silence. Silence is not a
neutral factor, it is a negative factor, and has great negative
weight. So speaking out counts and we can make things happen
when we do. I wish this President did so more and understood
what he could gain by doing so.
The second thing regarding China is, I think, to focus on the
United Nations. We providewe write the check for, what, 25 percent of its budget. Lisa has talked about how her father is a designated refugee by the United Nations, entitled under international
law to be free.
The fact that he is in jail is in naked, open Chinese violation of
its UN treaties. This violation is even more particularly important
as China remains the force that keeps North Korea alive. North
Korea is Tiananmen every day. Its regime stays alive because of
the Chinese Government. Well, there is leverage that we have. The
United Nations has been silent and appeasing of China as, in violation of law, China sends back North Korean refugees to death
camps.
Why do we not use our leverage on the United Nations through
the appropriations process to speak out? There is evidence that the
China-UN treaty actually gives the United Nations the right to
take China to binding arbitration. I have talked to the High Commissioner for Refugees and they are scared stiff of doing that.
Well, that is because China is applying the pressure and we are
not. We have leverage to move the United Nations to be a force
speaking out against Chinas treatment of political dissidents and
North Korean refugees. It will make a great difference if we do
that.
Now let me get to the big one, the Chinese Internet firewall. Do
not take my word that it is the big one. Hu Jintao has said that
if China cannot maintain the purity of the Internet, it cannot
maintain the stability of the socialist state.
Tens of thousands of Chinas ablest IT people are at work in its
firewall bureaucracy, and China spends billions of dollars to keep

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its Internet firewalls going. Such firewalls are the Berlin Walls of
the 21st century. It is not bricks and stones and barbed wire as
much as it is electronic firewalls that isolate and control millions
of people in the worlds closed societies, and very particularly in
China.
Now I know Congressman Smith knows this, but Congressman
Hultgren, the Board of Broadcasting Governors [BBG] gets $750
million a year and we cannot get them to allocate $20 million to
hold an Internet firewall breakthrough competition. That is less
than 3 percent of its budget.
We cannot get the State Department to do it. We have given
money for Internet freedom and that money has gone down a hole
and has had no immediate effect. But a $20 million breakthrough
competition mandated under the FY 2016 appropriations bill,
which the State Department can fund via access to the Economic
Support Fund [ESF] could make history.
If State and the BBG split the cost of such a competition, it
would take 0.1 percent of the ESF and 1.5 percent of the BBG
budget. Instead, the BBG now thinks its core missionin the 21st
centuryis as a radio operation and dedicates 95 percent to radio
and little to Internet firewall circumvention. And it does so with
the GAO [Government Accountability Office] saying $150 million of
its spending is duplicative.
I have friends at the BBG and know that there is an internal
struggle to move the agency into the 21st century, and they are
good people. But the present bottom line is what Senator Tom
Coburn said: That the BBG is the most worthless organization in
the Federal Government. That is saying an awful lot. We cannot
get them to hold a competition to achieve an Internet freedom
breakthrough.
Now, why is that important? Hear me, Congressman Hultgren.
The two most senior people at the Board of Broadcasting Governors
have said in writing that $20 million would be very likely to
achieve such a breakthrough, and they have been even more affirmative in private conversations. They acknowledge that $20 million will permit, within eight months, the following: 25 million
closed society residents a day would have access to the same Internet that you and I have. The President of the United States would
have an at-will capacity to speak to the people of any country at
any time of his choosing on their cell phones.
Now to get to this hearing: 500,000 house church Christians in
China would be able to participate in a worship service hosted in
the United States and do so interactively. We could have 200,000
Iranians in a town meeting in and out of Iran and we could do it
within eight months for 0.1 percent of the ESF and 1.5 percent of
the BBG budget, where 20 percent of it right now is spent for
waste and duplication. This is the real stuff of history and we can
make it happen.
Congresswoman Granger sits on the Appropriations Committee
for the BBG. Under the current appropriations bill, the FY 2015
bill, the BBG is clearly authorized to do this. Well, a letter was
sent two years ago by former Congressman Wolf, whose role I hope
you will take, Congressman Hultgren, as the amigo to Chris Smith
standing up for human rights. He can almost do it alone, but not

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quite. Frank Wolf wrote that letter, along with Roy Blunt and Jean
Shaheen and John Boozman to the BBG saying, do that $20 million
competition.
So we really need to achieve Internet firewall breakthroughs
and you have seen demonstrations of what field-tested systems can
do, Congressman Smith.
And by the way, the State Department was asked why we are
not doing this and the answer was because China would go ballistic if we did. Internet firewall circumvention is the most costeffective peaceful means of advancing American national interests
and it has not happened.
Now, let me just say, if I may, that people like former Senator
Joseph Lieberman understands this, as does former Congressman
Frank Wolf. They have seen demonstrations of what can be done
just to scale up field-tested systems that have now survived billiondollar attacks by China. It is just a question of getting more IP addresses and servers for those systems.
We can have 25 million by May 2016, at the latest. Let us assume that somehow it does not happen. How in the world can we
not spend $20 million as against the Chinese spending tens of billions of dollars and the Iranians the same? We have dropped out
of a peaceful war that the Iranians and Chinese say is critical to
their survival.
So I hope from out of this hearing will come renewed determination. Let me add that Senator Lindsey Graham writes the checks
on the Senate side and I hope he, too, will play that role to allow
a free Internet to make history. I think it is there to be made. Taking Chinas wordnot mine, not anyone elsestaking Irans word,
can allow for the Berlin Wall of our time to be peacefully brought
down.
That is what we can do to honor those people who are now in
jail, Lisas father and all the people in those photos over there, and
I hope it will be done. Thank you for hearing me.
Chairman SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Horowitz, for that
very impassioned and insightful presentation. I, too, have seen the
demonstration, about a three-hour demonstration on how the Great
Firewall can be pierced. It is gross negligence on our part that we
have not availed ourselves of that technology and others that do
exist or potentially could exist and the $20 million, as you said, is
a mere drop in the bucket.
The reason for the no, I do believe, is that there is that undue
fear, a cowering, if you will, by BBG and others where they do not
want to infuriate the Chinese dictatorship. It is just that simple.
If we pierce, as you said, the modern-day equivalent of the Berlin
Wall, although 21st century, it could make a huge difference. So,
thank you.
Dr. Yang?
Mr. HOROWITZ. May I just say one thing for the record? You
spent three hours watching the demonstration, Congressman
Smith. I do not want to frighten other Members of Congress into
thinking it will take that long to learn what can be done. We could
not stop you from taking the three hours. We wanted to leave the
room and you wanted to see more of the demonstration, but I
would say we could do it in 20 minutes. If we can get some of your

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colleagues to watch this demonstration for 20 minutes they would
understand how close we are to making history.
Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Horowitz.
Dr. Yang?
STATEMENT OF YANG JIANLI, PRESIDENT, INITIATIVES FOR
CHINA/CITIZEN POWER FOR CHINA

Mr. YANG. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the Commission. Thank you for hosting this important hearing.
Today we the panelists want to cover three distinct but related
points. First, when it comes to Tiananmen, why we must never forget and why we must counter, as your Commission has persistently
done, Chinas desperate attempt to infect both its people and the
outside world with amnesia about these tragic events.
Second, we want to stress the need to pierce the facade of President Xi Jinpings phony reforms. Third, we want to address the ultimate question of what can the Congress and the administration
do to strengthen human rights and democratic values in China?
Since both my long written statement and my fellow panelists
have covered the first two, I will focus on the third in the rest of
my opening remarks. After the Tiananmen massacre, Americans of
all political persuasions and faiths joined in the protest of the
slaughter of innocents.
Their outreach showed that human rights issues are not partisan
issues, but when it came to trade relations with China there was
a big debate. One side of the debate led by Representative Nancy
Pelosi asserted that U.S. trade relations with China must be linked
to Chinas human rights record. This idea was embodied in Pelosi
and Mitchells legislation in 1993.
When President Clinton reversed the policy in Representative
Pelosis proposal, he made a terrible mistake. The reversal was
based on the theory which was widely upheld by corporations, columnists, pundits, and policy makers that trade would inevitably result in more political freedom and guaranteed basic human rights.
In order to test that confident prediction, Congress established this
Commission which Congressman Smith chairs.
Under its mandate, the Commission has annually examined just
how much Chinas economic growth and interaction with the world
has led to real civil liberty and political freedom for its citizens and
each year the Commissions clear conclusion has been: not very
much.
That finding is consistently echoed in the annual human rights
records of the State Department, U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom, international human rights groups, and by the
testimonies of my fellow panelists today.
The lessons are very clear. We must abandon the delusion that
economic growth will bring human rights and democracy in China
in the foreseeable future. Instead, Americans of conscience should
insist that their government confront China on human rights
issues. They should demand that their government openly condemn
Chinas violation of basic human rights and demand the release of
its prisoners of conscience.
They should express support for those in China briefly asserting
or defending the human rights of others and receiving brutal pun-

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ishment for their good deeds, They should support such congressional bills as the China Human Rights Protection Act that you,
Congressman Smith, just introduced yesterday, and the Global
Magnitsky legislation that you and Representative McGarver introduced earlier this year.
We applaud and fully support these worthy initiatives, but in
closing I would like to suggest you carefully consider another proposal that is at the same time more fundamental. Congress should
pass a simple, short and sweet China Democracy Act.
We, Initiatives for China, recently hosted our 10th annual InterEthnic Inter-Faith Leadership Conference. It was attended by a
great many members of faith groups, ethnic minorities, and advocates in China and abroad of democracy, civil liberties, and human
rights.
At its conclusion, we passed a resolution which I want to expand
on today. It calls on Congress to enact a China Democracy Act, recognizing that advancement of human rights and democracy in
China is in Americas national interest and calling for an annual
assessment of whether the American Government is advancing or
actually undermining those goals.
In the early 1990s, I and many others believed that it would take
only a few years and not much outside physical assistance from the
U.S. Government to achieve those goals. But we over-estimated
how soon those briefly resisting in China could educate the people
about the need for a peaceful transition when their voices were
being silenced by prison and brutal torture and their speech was
blocked by modern technology.
At the same time, the Chinese Government has never stopped
discrediting Chinas democracy movement with the claim of American policy to provide it with secret assistance. In fact, the U.S.
Congress has never passed something as simple as a China Democracy Act, stating American policy to advance human rights and
rule of law and democratic values in China. It is shocking to me
that there is no such law at the present time.
That brings me to the resolution proposed by our conferees a few
weeks ago for the China Democracy Act. This would not be a nonbinding resolution. Instead, it would be binding legislation flatly
stating congressional judgment that advancing human rights and
democratic values in China is decidedly in Americas national interest.
That precludes the currently widespread but inaccurate claim
that the Congress must balance on the one hand its claim to support the universal value of human rights and on the other hand
Americas national interests.
The bill also would require a report from the President to Congress every year on how government programs, policy, or action
during the prior 12 months has strengthened human rights and
democratic values in China and, equally important, how any program, policy, or initiative has weakened human rights and the
democratic values in China.
All Federal departments of government, every single one, should
have to report on what they are doing to bring democracy to China
by advancing human rights and the rule of law there. The act also
put them on notice to take no action, adopt no policy, and imple-

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ment no program that would undercut the democracy movement or
weaken human rights in China.
Such a China Democracy Act and annual presidential report
would give us a better idea of what success we have had so far,
what caused them, and how we should increase the financial resources and deploy them to promote democracy and human rights
in China. Without such legislation, I very much doubt we will be
on track and on course to succeed in what we dreamed of back in
1989.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman SMITH. Dr. Yang, thank you very much, again, for
your steadfast support for human rights defenders and for democracy and freedom in China for all of these years, for the personal
sacrifice you have made, and for this recommendation. As you
know, with the China Human Rights Protection Act, it would specifically sanction Chinese Government officials, create a China
human rights documentation center for NGOs [non-governmental
organizations], and require a report to Congress.
So I think we are paralleling, but any additional ideas you might
have on how we can beef that up, I think you just, in your written
testimony, have provided some of that. We will absolutely take it
into consideration. So, thank you for that very important input that
you have provided.
Let me just ask a couple of questions and I will yield to my good
friend and colleague, Commissioner Hultgren.
First, Lisa Peng, when you testified before the committee, my
subcommittee a couple of years ago before Xi Jinpings first trip,
you and the other four, five daughters in totalwe actually called
it the five daughters. It was a hearing of five daughters, all of
whomand Michael, you will remember that hearing very, very
wellhave a dad who is incarcerated, is a human rights defender,
and you were all very eloquent that day, as you were again today.
You had askedall of you had askedto meet with President
Obama and I will never forget. It was so touching. You said, Well,
he has two daughters, he will understand and he will listen to us
when we make an appeal on behalf of our fathers. We tried for
six months through letter, phone calls, and every other way we
could think of to get the President to meet even for 15 minutes
with the five daughters, and Xi Jinping came, a missed opportunity
if ever there was one when he was here.
But he will be coming again and I will again reach out to the
President. I hope he will hear that appeal that he meet with you
and the other four daughters before he again meets with Xi Jinping
to raise the cases of your dads.
So we will do that by way of letter, we will include your testimony from today, and then the other five testimonies from that
last hearing. You know what the answer was that we got back from
the President of the United States, which I find absolutely appalling? He saidor they said on his behalfhe does not have the
time.
When you say you do not have time for something, you have not
stated a fact, you have stated a priority. The fact that five wonderful daughters was not a priority, that needs to change and the

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President needs to find his voice. I am gladwhen it comes to
human rightsI do not care who is in the White House.
I have never shied away, and I have been here 35 years. When
there was a Republican that was being neutraland there is no
such thing as being neutral. I think your point, Dr. Yang, a moment ago about pushing forward or not, neutrality is being on the
side of enabling and complicity. I was very glad that you pointed
out, Ho Pin, in your testimonyI believe it was yours. Let me just
find it againyes.
When you talked about how George Bush sent a special envoy.
It was Brent Scowcroft, National Security Advisor, to reassure
Deng Xiaoping that we were okay maybe not with what was actually happening, but that we would not create ripples and problems.
When Frank Wolf and I went a couple of years ago to Beijing
Prison No. 1 where Tiananmen Square activists, 40 of them with
heads shaved, looked just like a concentration camp from the news
reels from the 2nd World War in Nazi Germany, very gaunt men
who were doing slave labor in Beijing Prison No. 1, 40 of them
were Tiananmen Square activists. Even then we thought, how
could President Bush have reassured the dictatorship that all is
well?
As you also pointed out, it was Clinton, Dr. Yang, who first
linked most-favored-nation status with progress, significant
progressoperative phrasewith regard to human rights and then
infamously de-linked it when there was significant deterioration
which gave the cue, gave the nod to the dictatorship that profits
trump human rights every day of the week.
So to me, that was a reneging that said that it was not a priority
for us. We need to regain our voice and we need to do smart things
like Mr. Horowitz is advocating to break the Chinese firewall.
Again, we will ask again that the President meet with you and
with the other four daughters, five in total, to bring up these
issues.
I would point out for the record that on June 25 we are going
to be chairingin my subcommittee, I am going to be chairing
a hearing on American universities in China and academic freedom. We have invited NYU and they have said yes. It has been
a yearin invitationsfor them to come.
Dr. Jeffrey Lehman will be testifying, as will others, to raise this
issue of whether or not we are on the side of promoting democracy,
human rights, and freedom or whether or not we are enabling the
dictatorship in that country and actually making them even more
effective in their dictatorship and their repression.
Mr. Horowitz?
Mr. HOROWITZ. Congressman Smith, may I make one recommendation to you as in advance to the Xi Jinping visit? Get in
touch with George Schultz, would be my recommendation. He tells
this great story of Reagans great breakthrough of when the Soviet
Ambassador came to him and said, What is going on with your
boss? I try to talk to him about ruble stabilization and nuclear war
and whatnot, and all he wants to do is talk about Jewish Refuseniks and Pentecostals. I cant do any business with him. And
Schultz, who was very shrewd, said I have got the same problem.
If you want to deal with Ronald Reagan you have got to start re-

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leasing Pentecostals and you have got to start treating Refuseniks
differently. Of course, that happened and with it cracks began to
develop in what was thought to be a 10-foot thick Russian Iron
Curtain wall.
So former Secretary Schultz, one of the most distinguished Americans, understood what speaking out for dissidents in dictatorships
can produce. I think if he could speak out and tell the story about
this simple bargaining 101 strategy and its effectiveness, he could
be a great ally before the Xi visit if you could get him to tell that
story.
Chairman SMITH. That is a great story. The lessons learned from
the Soviet Refuseniks and the Jewish Refuseniks is a great one. I
went to Moscow many times during the Soviet dictatorship and
Schultz always met with the dissidents first, then met with his Soviet interlocutors. We have asked President Obama to do the same
thing on his trips to China: meet with the dissidents, listen to
them, provide an umbrella of protection and concern and empathy
for their plight.
Mr. HOROWITZ. But here is the point: Even if you did not
empathize a fig about fingernails getting pulled out of pastors or
life sentences of dissidents like Lisas father and so forth, history
teaches you that if you want ChinaReagan understood this with
the Soviet Unionto talk about weapon systems, to talk about all
the bilateral issues that the State Department regards as important, the best bargaining technique to make this happen is to start
talking about human rights. They then change the subject and
start to bargain on those other issues.
So the lesson to be learned here is that this is not justthey put
your efforts down, the efforts of the three of you here, as some
knee-jerk reaction. That is very nice, thank you very much, they
tell you, but we are big boys talking about the big issues, and
human rights controversy gets in the way.
They do not understand history in the way Ronald Reagan did
and the way it has happened, in the way Teddy Roosevelt talked
about pogroms on the Soviet Union in 1900. Human rights advocacy is a great power tool to get dictatorships to start coming to
terms on all the issues. They fear it most, are most vulnerable, if
we talk about human rights. So it is a Bargaining 101 issue here
and it is that history that ought to be communicated to the Obama
administration, I think.
Chairman SMITH. Before yielding to Commissioner Hultgren, let
me just say, Dr. Teng, you made a very profound statement when
you said History will require us to answer one question: Did we
stand on the side of tank man or on the side of the tank? That
is just very profound and unfortunately I will not even say the jury
is out; we have enabled and stood on the side of the tank as a society and as a government.
Mr. Hultgren?
Representative HULTGREN. Thank you. So good to be with you.
I appreciate the incredible work that all of you are doing. I also am
so honored to be with two of my heroes. Chairman Smith just is
a tireless fighter for life and for freedom and for human rights. It
is so powerful. And my good friend Trent Franks as well. Both are
incredible mentors to me and it is a privilege to be a part of this

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Commission and know that we willabsolutely can and will
make a difference together. So, thank you.
I have a couple of questions, if I could. I apologize, I had a couple
of hearings this morning and so missed some of the early statements, but wanted just to follow up on that.
Dr. Teng, I wonder if I could ask you quickly about current
crackdowns on freedom of speech, association, assembly, and religion that have begun after Xi Jinping took office, and why do you
think this crackdown has been so severe?
Mr. TENG. Thank you. Yes. As I have mentioned today, the Internet, universities, the NGOs, human rights defenders are facing a
very severe crackdown. First, we can see the Communist Party
feels the ideology increasing, especially as we analyzed Document
No. 9.
We can feel the Communist Party is fearing the possible or the
potential color revolution so much and they think the Western
NGOs, the Western information, media, universities are influencing Chinese intellectuals as well as ordinary people. Besides the
ideology crisis, we know that the Party is also facing a lot of social
and political problems that clashes between the people and the
comments and the Xinjiang Uyghur area and Tibetan area and the
gap between the poor and the rich.
Many, many mass protests are related to corruption or pollution
or land-taking. So superficially we can see that the Communist
Party is very, very strong and powerful and confident, but in reality obviously the Party feels insecurity. They are not confident.
Thank you.
Representative HULTGREN. Thank you.
Ms. Peng, thank you for being here. I want you to know, certainly for myself and others, your father and your family are in our
thoughts and prayers and we appreciate so much your strong voice
certainly fighting for him, but for others as well.
I wonderedand again, I apologize I was not able to hear your
testimonyif you could just give a brief update to me and to others, and if you have already covered this I apologize, but how your
father is doing, his health, is he getting proper food and care?
When was the last time you communicated with him, and what
your sense is of his current condition?
Ms. PENG. Thank you for being here today. My father is still suffering from poor health with no medical care. He has suffered from
many heart attacks, kidney stones, bronchitis, arthritis. He has
been serving his life sentence for the past 11 years and, frankly,
it is a miracle to me that he is still surviving and motivated to continue to live.
I think this is because he has faith that the United States will
stand for its own values, the same values for which my father
fought. I think he has faith that the United States will understand
that its values and its interests are one and the same, and for that
he continues to exercise, to write, and to do whatever he can to
push through.
His courage to continue to live is what inspires me to continue
advocating for his freedom here in the United States because if he
who has spent 11 years in prison can still have hope that the
United States will stand for its values, then I certainly do. Like

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Mr. Horowitz said, I think it takes Bargaining 101. I think it requires the United States to speak up, to mention the names of people like my father, to use to its advantages Chinas contempt for
international law.
In fact, China has made it easy for us, the United States and the
international community, to take action and make a case for political prisoners like my father, because much of what theyve done
is illegal, even according to their own law. For example, my father
is a U.S.-based dissident with UN refugee status who fled persecution, so his arrest in Myanmar by Chinese police violates the principle of non-refoulement. He was denied his right to due process,
he has suffered the past 11 years from no medical care, and his requests for medical parole have all been ignored. So I think Chinas
contempt for rule of law makes it easy for us to support cases like
my fathers and to bring up his name.
Representative HULTGREN. Well, thanks. Your father, his example, certainly is inspiring and quite honestly convicting to me and
to us, as well. I know we can, and need to do and must do, more.
So thank you again for being a part of this and being here today.
Can I have time to ask one more question? Is that okay?
First of all, before I have a question, Mr. Horowitz, thank you.
I am in, whether it is the 20-minute version or the 3-hour version
I definitely want to. Let us schedule that and maybe see if we can
get some other colleagues to join in as well, because that is to me,
again, unconscionable and, with such an incredibly small investment, the world change that could happen with that, so I definitely
want to see that.
I wonder if I could just kind of wrap up, I guess, Dr. Yang, just
to ask quickly. It appears many human rights advocates and legal
defenders in China also belong to religious institutions that exist
outside of state control. I wonder if you could discuss how Chinas
religious communities play a role in fostering human rights awareness and political reforms.
Mr. YANG. Thank you for your question. Before I answer this
question I want to follow up with Teng Biaos answer to your previous question just now. There was a New York Times article a few
days ago. The title is, Chinas Security Laws Elevate the Party
and Stifle Dissent. Mao would approve. Mao would approve
means China is on the way back to the Cultural Revolution. Mr.
Ho Pin, in his opening remarks, mentioned Gao Yu.
Gao Yu, for your information, is a 71-year-old journalist who was
charged with leaking state secrets. What she gave out to the international media actually was the CCPs [Chinese Communist Party]
Document No. 9, which actually states the seven no-speaks or
seven perils. I will just give you an idea of what is in it.
The seven perils are: constitutional democracy, press freedom,
market economy, universal values, civil society, independent judicial system, and CCP past mistakes. So you can see that censorship
has been brought to another level ever since Xi Jinping assumed
his leadership.
Back to your question. The religious groups are playing a very
important role in China. There is no civil society, nor any independent organizations allowed in China. The Chinese Government
is suspicious of any organization because if people organize they

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can do more than individually. An organized force is always a
threat to the Chinese Government.
But you understand that religious groups are so committed, they
are more committed than other civil groups, so they come together
and become a very important force, demanding freedom. So they
may just begin with a freedom of religion approach, but in the end
they will help China liberalize in other fields as well. I will just
give you one example.
There is a house church organization which is very big in China,
especially in Beijing. When their members form NGOs on environmental issues, for example, the Chinese Government tries to target
them. But when they understand that there is a big religious group
behind them, they will be more careful dealing with them.
So I think religious groups are playing a very important role. But
at the same time, religious groups have received persecutions, severe persecutions in the past two decades. Falun Gong practitioners are the most severely persecuted in the past two decades,
so we cannot forget them and we should continue to advocate for
the imprisoned religious people in China.
Representative HULTGREN. Is it okay if Mr. Horowitz comments
just quickly?
Mr. HOROWITZ. I really do apologize, but I think this is so central. I am doing it because Congressman Franks is here and you
have been the leader on the issue of religious persecution, and very
particularly in China.
I want you to know that in doing so you are not just out there
protecting Christians, you are making a difference for human
rights throughout China. When we first, with Congressman Smith
and former Congressman Wolf, tried to pass the International Religious Freedom Act [IRFA], the New York Times was saying how
could these right-wing Christians be out there speaking for this minority sect when all these great Chinese human rights heroesI
forget, senior moment, the name of the great one who was in jail
for like 15 years. Wei Jingshengand the columnist at the New
York Times said why arent they focused on Wei Jingsheng?
Well, Wei Jingsheng got out of jail while we were trying to pass
the IRFA bill and he became its No. 1 advocate. He did so because,
he said, if the word goes out to the Chinese people that the regime
cannot even burn down a church, there will be freedom for political
dissidents, for artists, for everybody in China. That was exactly the
story of what protecting Pentecostals and the Soviet Refuseniks
did. It sent out the word that there was freedom for everybody.
I am a Jew who has worked on Christian persecution. I am in
such awe of these Christian groups in China and the leadership
and the courage they exercise, and the fact that they are the spear
points for freedom for everybody.
I will just tell one last story of a major figureI do not want to
name herin Chinese human rights efforts. She was very, very
successful in China in the fashion industry and she tells the story
about how she thought her life just was hollow. She was making
money but, she said, but I do not want to wind up with lots of
pretty dresses. Theres more to life than that.
So a friend of hers said, Why dont you go to church? And she
said, Oh no, come on, no church for me, Im not into that sort of

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thing. The friend bugged her and finally she went to church. She
said when she went in that church in China, a house church, she
said, For the first time in my life in China I walked in a room and
everybody was smiling. She had never seen that. She has become
a very devout, quietly committed Christian whose bravery emanating from her faith has her dealing with one-child policies, and
dealing with all sorts of human rights advocacy.
So your question could not be clearer that when wewhen you,
Congressman Franksprotect religious leaders who are persecuted
in China, you are protecting every atheist in China, every activist
in China. That is what history tells us and that is what is happening in China right now.
Representative HULTGREN. Thank you. I yield back.
Chairman SMITH. I would like to yield to Chairman Franks.
Commissioner Franks serves as Chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee on the Judiciary, but he also is the Chairman of the Religious Freedom Caucus in the House.
Representative FRANKS. Well, it would be better if I left the room
because I cannot improve the circumstances here on my behalf at
all. I appreciate the kind words. I just say to you that I know that
it seems obligatory always, but I truly believe that Chris Smith,
when it comes to human rights in the Congress, is the four-star
general. He is the man that when people ask me about something,
sometimes they get a blank stare and I say, ask Chris. He has been
a hero of mine for a long time. I have watched Congressman
Hultgren ever since he has been here. He has always been on the
side of human dignity and freedom.
Let me just say, while we are walking along that road, those of
you that have been activists for human rights and human dignity
and human freedom on China, I do not think you could possibly understand the importance of your role because you bring to the
whole world the recognition inside a country that is not known for
human rights.
You are bringing the whole world the reality. If you win China
today, you will win the world tomorrow. You have an opportunity
to be a catalyst for the most profound kind of change and I just
cannot express to you the affection and the respect that I feel for
you for that commitment.
Not to patronize you, Mr. Horowitz, but when you made the comments a moment ago about the notion if we focus on human rights,
that sometimes it drives our potential partners to the table on
some of these other issues. I have got to be very open with you,
that never occurred to me.
I always thought, well, when you speak of human rights you are
speaking of the greater issue because if we can create a collective,
introspective examination of these countries, their own heart, that
maybe that will change things in a big way and we will not be adversaries. But still, your words spoke very powerfully to me and I
found them extremely compelling and I was embarrassed that it
had not occurred to me before because I could not agree with you
more.
When we speak of the true foundational issues in some of these
countries that have an intrinsicnot only a fear of discussing that,
but a recognition of their own failure in that regard, it pushes

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them over and at least we get some efficacy in our discussion with
them.
Then one other thing I would mention and then I will have one
question for everyone. That is the whole notion, again, Mr. Horowitzthat he mentioned, when we talk about religious freedom it
is the cornerstone of all other freedoms. If we have religious freedom, out of it flows free speech and a lot of other wonderful things.
Countries that practice religious freedom do not find themselves
at war with each other most of the time. They do not find themselves enemies of the human family. Those who practice religious
freedom do not suggest that we have no differences, they simply
suggest that we can be kind and decent to each other in spite of
those differences. It is, in my judgment, one of the great hopes of
humanity. Again, no one practices that more than you.
So I would have one question for all of you. I did not mean to
give a speech, Mr. Chairman, but I have one question for all of you.
In a very brief way so that we can kind of take advantage of the
time here, because I believe that you all have a collective and a derived wisdom here and understanding of the real challenges we
face, you can apply it to China or to the greater cause of religious
freedom and human rights.
If you could say to America one brief thing that you think we
should either know as a people or do as a people to ameliorate this
tragedy of people across the world not having the recognition for
the fact that they were created in the image of God, this human
dignity that is intrinsic to all human beings, this religious freedom,
this freedom to be human, could you just give me your top line
thought and then I will turn it back to the Chairman with gratitude.
Mr. Biao, first. Dr. Teng?
Mr. TENG. Yes. I would say that religious freedom is the most
fundamental of human rights and I hope that the United States
and Western democracy can mediate and take strong action to punish the perpetrators of violating religious freedom, to stop these
perpetrators from entering the Western world.
Representative FRANKS. Have any thoughts?
Ms. PENG. I would say that the reason we should care about religious freedom in other nations, not just in our own, is that the fundamental freedoms that come from religious freedom, are the values on which our nation was founded. In order to respect our own
values and to hold our own actions to the highest standards, we
need to continue to promote religious freedom and other freedoms
in other nations. So in a sense this is about what we can do to respect our own nations values as much as it is about promoting
freedoms around the world.
Representative FRANKS. Thank you.
Mr. HO. My sentence would be that if human rights freedom in
China cannot be improved, then Americas foundation on human
rights and freedom would be also impacted. It will bring the erosion of U.S. freedom. In this New York book fair, the Chinese officials put out their books. In China, you do not even have the freedom to publish books, but the Chinese officials can bring their own
books to a book fair in New York.
Representative FRANKS. Thank you.

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Mr. HOROWITZ. Can I just modestly shift the question? I do not
think the issue is reaching the American people, I think they are
reached. I do not think the issue is reaching Members of Congress.
For the most part, they are reached and those who are not do not
dare vote the other way. The real question is congressional strategy
that can be effective. I think we send the wrong signal when bills
get introduced and they do not get passed. It tells China they are
scot-free.
So I have a very specific suggestion as a former general counsel
of the Office of Management and Budget. I hope that you, Congressman Smith, can gather together 40 or 50 Members and come
up with a package that is effective but doable in the FY 2016 appropriations bill when you take up the State Foreign Operations
appropriations bill.
Yang Jianli has talked about an annual report. Requiring it is
the sort of thing that can go in an appropriations bill, which can
do the very thing Jianli wants done in his stand-alone bill. I think
that a provision in the coming FY16 bill that does not merely authorize but mandates a break-through competition for Internet firewall circumvention would be another provision that could go in a
reform package.
Something else would deal with the United Nations saying that
the United Nations must do X to enforce its treat, which China regularly breaks. That is the tool, in my judgment, to get Lisas father
out of jail, to force China to live up to its treaty obligation, to get
the United Nations much more aggressive on that score. I would
be happy to workand many of us would be happy to workwith
a small group to help produce such a reform package.
But if you could get 50 Members, bipartisan, Congressman
McGovern, others, on a bipartisan basis to approach Speaker
Boehner, Congressman McCarthy, Congressman Rogers, Congresswoman Granger and the House leadership and say this is what we
have got to have in the FY 2016 foreign operations appropriations
bill, the leverage you could exercise and the reforms you could
achieve would be enormous.
I think you can put some very historic things in the FY 2016 bill.
You have got Congresswoman Granger who starts on your side,
and Congressman Rogers for sure on your side. So I think that by
just working effectively, quietly at the beginning, you can promote
religious freedom and liberty with powerful tools, signals, and real
actions that will not involve just talking. And you can do it within
the next month or so in the FY 2016 appropriations act. Thank
you.
Representative FRANKS. Well, Mr. Chairman, I hope that we can
follow up specifically and practically and definitively and
proactivelyand use all these other kind of wordsI mean, in
other words, seriously about this because I think the man makes
a lot of sense.
Mr. HOROWITZ. You just whistle, I will be there.
Dr. Yang Jianli.
Mr. YANG. Thank you, Congressman Franks, for your question.
As a Christian, I understand how important religious freedom is.
It is so important that people can find the source of their con-

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science and also they can act according to the convictions of their
conscience.
In China, there is no religious freedom. At this point I want to
bring to your attention what is happening in China. The Chinese
Government has been making great efforts to demolish churches in
a few provinces, mostly in Zhejiang province. That happened because the Party Chief saw the church was taller with the cross. It
is taller than the Party Committees building so he felt jealousy of
the influence and jealousy of power, so he ordered the demolition
of many churches in Zhejiang province.
So that gave us an example that a one-party system can never
guarantee religious freedom. That is something we try to change in
China. At this point I want to mention to you, Congressman
Franks, before you leave that I think America has had lost opportunities in the past two decades to change China right after the
cold war.
The mistake was made simply because what I called the
compartmentalization of policies which put human rights against
national interests of the United States. So today in my opening remarks I emphasized advancing human rights and democracy in
China is in Americas interests.
Representative FRANKS. Absolutely.
Mr. YANG. There is no such law in this country to say it, to regulate the Federal Governments work in that regard. I bring with me
today two books. One is by former Congressman Barney Frank and
another is by former Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson. Both
books talk about the case that they worked together to get my freedom, how they worked together, one from Congress, the other from
the executive branch. They worked together.
Actually, they got my release when Secretary of Treasury
Paulson went to the first U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue,
which is not about human rights on the surface, but in the meeting
he mentioned my case and pressed the Chinese Government to release me, he said, literally said, This case is very important for
me. If you want to continue the dialogue, you have to respond.
Then they responded and released me just two weeks later.
Representative FRANKS. Yes.
Mr. YANG. So that is the example. That shows how the congressional members, the Congress and the executive branch, can work
together for human rights even on occasions which on the surface
are not human rights issues related.
So what I advocate is we have to end compartmentalization of
American policies and to link every single work of the U.S. Government to human rights because it is in the interests of this country.
Thank you.
Representative FRANKS. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I have come to a lot of your hearings and they
are always very insightful, but I think this one has been especially
so and I hope we follow up on what Mr. Horowitz and some of the
others have said. Thank you for your commitment. Thank all of
you.
Mr. HOROWITZ. Congressman, I apologize for talking so darned
much, but this is such a rich hearing. I agree with you. I cannot
let Jianli discuss his imprisonment without telling, very quickly, a

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little bit about him. He had a five-year sentence in jail, much time
in solitary confinement.
This man wrote poetry in his own mind while he was in solitary
confinement and he published it afterward. But what happened
was, the Chinese said after a period of time, We will let you out
and as soon as you get out of prison we are going to kick you out
of the country.
He saidand this is the bravery of these dissidents like Jianli
Well, you cannot tell me when to leave my country. It is my country. I will leave when I think the time has come. Well, they said,
that is okay but we will stick you in jail for your full term. He
said he was ready for that. I do not know, he probably served another year or so in jail just to send that signal of freedom and independence and patriotism.
But it also sends the message that this dangerous guyand the
Chinese knew how dangerous he wasgot released when a Secretary of the Treasury said quietly we ought to do it.
I would say one other thing on the religious side. Xi Jinping may
be making a strategic mistake. He is going a little too far. He is
not being shrewd here.
On the religious side, one thing that ought to be on the table at
this hearing is that the Three Self-Patriotic churches, which used
to be held out as patriotic Chinese believers supporting the Communist regime, they are now being subject to persecution so that
the Three-Self churches and the House Church movements are
working together and becoming alliesand this is a great movement that is happening and developing in China.
As Congressman Smith knows, both are now on the same side
more and more which creates a critical mass of protesters so that
the power of the Christian community and the Falun Gong and the
Uyghur community is greater than it has ever been because Xi
Jinping is taking persecution one step too far. So the work you are
doing has an even more fertile possibility of changing China and
making history.
Representative FRANKS. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman SMITH. Thank you. Just let me conclude with one or
two final questions and a comment. First of all, we do meet again
today to remember the sacrifice, even unto death, of those people
and those who endured severe injury and have suffered decades of
incarceration on behalf of internationally recognized human rights.
Tiananmen Square could have been the turning point for China.
I believe that the spirit of Tiananmen Square, of the students who
were there, inspires, as I said in my opening, everyone, including
the Congress, to never let up, never lose focus that the people of
China absolutely yearn to be free and deserve to be free. When we
enable a dictatorship, we then become complicit in their misery.
Let me also say that Xi Jinpingand I read that article in the
New York Times as well and was again disturbed by this race to
the bottom of Xi Jinpingit seems as if he is seeking to channel
Mao Zedong and to emulate the excesses of that man and, of
course, to the great detriment of the Chinese people.
But when we talk about what can be done, what can you say
about a country that continues to incarcerate the best and the
bravest and the brightest of China, as it did with Dr. Yang and as

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it is with your dad and so many others? It still holds in jail the
Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.
The world cannot forget that, and we will not forget it, certainly,
on this Commission. Many of us in Congress will not forget that,
or his wife who has suffered, kind of like being jailed herself because of that incarceration.
I would call on the administration again to enforce the law.
China gets the designation Country of Particular Concern [CPC]
and there are 18 or so specific prescribed sanctions that can be
meted out because of their extreme violation of religious freedom
and the persecution of believers of all kinds.
And as you said, the Falun Gong get a special set of repressive
measures meted out against them. Yet, the only sanction that the
administration continues to use is almost like a double-hatted sanction, the Tiananmen Square sanctions on military cooperation and
technological transfers, while there are several other sanctions that
ought to be imposed upon the PRC because of their designation
CPC.
They ought to be Tier Three under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the law that I sponsored. There is no doubt that they
have become the worst violator in a number of human trafficking
cases, largely attributable to the one-child-per-couple policy and the
lack of women because women have been systematically
exterminated through sex-selection abortions.
They were Tier Three for one year and had an automatic downgrade, and then were replaced back up to the Watch List, which
I thought was a very cruel misdesignation on the part of the administration because Tier Three could need more sanctions when
it comes to the atrocity of human trafficking.
There is a visa ban in effect. I wrote it [the ban] in 2000. They
are not enforcing it for those who are part of the cruelty of the onechild-per-couple policy. Less than 30 people have been sanctioned
years-to-date since 2000.
New laws. We need those. We need them now and we will work
hard on those. Michael, as you know, there are always interests
starting at the White House and the State Department who are
loathe to put anything that looks like a sanction on the country of
China, so we have huge obstacles to overcome there.
I would ask all of you in conclusion, if you couldand again,
there are opportunities. We interface with the Chinese and with
leaders there, but it is not the same as the executive branch. They
are the designated hitters, if you will. They are the ones who are
empowered by our Constitution to be the point people, the President being the number-one person, to talk with and to meet with
presidents and prime ministers.
There is an executive meeting going on, at the end of this, on
economic issues, a dialogue. The human rights issues, Dr. Yang,
need to be incorporated. That is at the end of this month. Very
often, they are hermetically sealed away from all other talks. Remember, Hilary Clinton said it.
It was an insight into the modus operandi of this State Department when she said she is not going to let human rights interfere
with global warming issues and peddling U.S. debt through Treasury bills to the Chinese on her first trip to Beijing as Secretary of

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State. I am fearful that there might be a perfunctory mention of,
oh, human rights, let us put an X in that box and get that off the
table. Names have to be tendered.
This Commission has the best prisoners list, and I applaud our
staff for the tremendous work that they do in compiling, vetting,
and ensuring that political and religious prisoners and their case
stories and their families are all compiled in a way that is actionable. That needs to be conveyed to the Chinese at every meeting.
My question to all of you in conclusion is that the President will
be meeting with Xi Jinping, as we all know. When he met with Hu
Jintao, it was an utter failure the first time, especially when they
had the joint press conference and a reporter asked about human
rights and Hu Jintao had trouble understanding the question
through some alleged technical difficulty. The President jumped in
and said, Oh, but they have a different culture in China and a different political system.
It was so bad that the Washington Post wrote a scathing editorial that said, Obama Defends Hu on Rights and said the culture understands human rights. That is why the gulags, the
laogai, are filled to overflowing with people like Dr. Yang and so
many others, your dad, who have suffered to ensure that those
rights someday are respected in the Peoples Republic of China.
The other point was a political system. It is a dictatorship. Let
us call it for what it is. So what would all of you say to the President when he meets with Xi Jinping? What should he say to him?
Should he hand him a list and say, come on, Mr. President, it is
time. Join the 21st century. These people are good people. They
love your country. They are patriots in the greatest sense of that
word and they just want human rights and fundamental freedoms
respected. What would you say? Dr. Teng, we will start with you.
Mr. TENG. Yes. If I have a chance to talk to President Xi Jinping
I will tell him, stop the persecution of human rights activists and
release all the political prisoners and prisoners of conscience and
start the process of democratization or there will be no future for
the Communist Party, there will be no future for the Chinese people. If the Chinese Communist Party still commits more crimes
against universal values, it will be punished definitely in the future.
Ms. PENG. I would say to the President, who seems so eager to
preserve multi-culturalism around the world, is that one mans cultural diversity is another mans life sentence, his denial of medical
care, his denial of basic liberties, his being torn apart from his family.
But I would also note that the culture the President bends over
backward to appease, is not the culture of the Chinese people. The
culture of the Internet firewall, violating internal law to kidnap political prisoners, denying freedomsthat culture that the President
tries to respectis the culture of the Communist Party.
I think if he really were in the interest of respecting cultures, as
he says, he would do well to realize that one demonstrates respect
for another culture not by tacitly consenting to anything they do,
such as imprisoning human rights activists, but rather by holding
those cultures to the highest of standards. That to me is the expression of the most genuine and truest respect for another culture.

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Chairman SMITH. Thank you.
Mr. HO. Xi wants to come to the United States for recognition
of China-U.S. relations as a relationship between two powerful
countries. But if Obama accepts this relationship, Obama will also
accept Chinas violation of human rights.
During the Jiang Zemin era, Clinton met with him and established this strategic partnership relation and actually gave a weapon to them for violating human rightsit was a mistake and gave
them a weapon for violating human rights. We do not want Obama
to repeat this mistake. Thank you.
Mr. HOROWITZ. I have a wonderfully ironic point but it would be
the most ultimate strategic point that I would urge on the President to say to Xi Jinping. I think he should say:
You know the greatest source of power that any government can have is for its currency to be the worlds trading
currency. It means that if you are the worlds trading currency you can run your printing press and just print pieces
of paper and the rest of the world gives you goods and
services.
Well, Mr. Xi, as long as you have an absence of human
rights and religious freedom in China, it does not matter
what our debt to you will be, it does not matter how much
your GNP goes up and how much ours may go down, the
dollar will have no competitor because the world will not
cede to you the kind of respect and authority that the dollar has and allow the RMB to be its trading currency.
You want to compete with us for world power? Release
Lisas father.
The power that the release of dissidents would have and
the power you have in terms of being a more powerful factor in the 21st century by implementing the agenda of this
Commission is greater than all of your defense spending in
terms of what China will be in the world.
No matter what happens to your economy, the world will
never cede to you the kind of power that America has.
When you become a democracy, when you implement
human rights, you will be a much tougher competitor to
the United States.
I think that would be such a strategic way of the President saying, become a democracy, compete with us, and even if you win
some trade competitions, the world and the United States will be
in better shape.
All these dissidents who are accused by the regime of being antiChina, they are the greatest pro-China people in the world because
once human rights is implemented in China, China can project its
economy and its economic strength into world respect in ways that
all of the armies and navies it may put together never will.
Mr. YANG. I would urge the President to convey a very clear message to President Xi Jinping that how the Chinese Government
treats its own people matters to the relationship of the two countries because the American people care. They care, so as President
I must care because America is a democratic country. There is no
normalization of so-called new power relations if China is not on

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the way toward democracy. If there is no progress of human rights,
there is no normal relationship between the two powers.
It would be remiss of me if today I do not mention a group of
Chinese students studying in this country who were born in the
1980s and 1990s and who recently signed an open letter to their
counterparts in China, calling on them to pursue the truth, the
truth about the massacre and pursue democracy and freedom in
China. That shows the failure despite its best effort on the part of
the Chinese Government to infect amnesia about the tragic events
and the failure to brainwash the younger generation.
That also shows democracy, freedom, and human rights are not
a gift for one generation, it is a common, universal desire for all
human beings. Here at the hearing I want to thank them. I want
to thank them because they give us hope. Thank you again for your
leadership. I lost count of how many times I have testified at the
hearings you hosted. Ever since 1996 when Chinas defense minister came here, you hosted the first hearing on Chinas human
rights; 15, 16, 17, 20 hearings. I lost count. Thank you very much
for your leadership.
Chairman SMITH. Well, Dr. Yang, this is my 52nd hearing on
human rights in China.
Mr. YANG. Fifty-second? Oh, my God.
Chairman SMITH. And the hearing you mentionedand again, it
is so apropos to this hearing. You recall and you were so eloquent
that day. Chi Haotian, the defense minister of China, was here, got
a 19-gun salute at the White House, was at the Army War College,
and was feted as a respected diplomat, even though he was the
Butcher of Beijing, the operational commander who sent in the
tanks.
We called on President Clinton to repudiate that and he would
not, so then Chi Haotian, as you recall so well, went to the Army
War College and a mid-level officer asked about how many people
died at Tiananmen Square, and Chi Haotian said no one died at
Tiananmen Square. He thought he was in Beijing where the big lie
would be amplified by the local media.
So we put together a hearing in two days, and you testified, as
did some others. We had a person from the Peoples Daily who actually reported on it and then got into big trouble, went to prison
himself, and others who saw what went on.
The Time Magazine correspondent who watched from his balcony
as people were killed. We invited Chi Haotian or anybody from the
Chinese Embassy to sit there and tell us their side of the story,
and they refused so we had an empty chair. But that denial, which
the students are speaking to students back in China about, you can
only suppress the truth for so long.
As Michael Horowitz has said, when the Internet finally opens
up widely, the truth about Tiananmen Square will be well-known
and the agony suffered by so many will be well-known. That will
be part of the reform process. But you were eloquent that day and
I will never forget it.
Mr. Horowitz?
Mr. HOROWITZ. As we are closing, I cannot not do it without complimenting you and your leadership, however uncomfortable it may
make you, Congressman Smith. This is a lesson in history. You

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have these hearings and how you do not get discouraged is almost
beyond me, because people say, Oh, another hearing, who cares,
youre not making a difference, the big issues are moving forward
and not yours.
Well, I lived in Mississippi when the University of Mississippi
Law School was first integrated. I have watched what has happened in Eastern Europe. People think that history is a process of
gradual progression until it reaches a point and things change.
That is not how history is made. History is a flat-line that declines a little bit from time to time, but keeps alive because a handful of people just keeping a torch lit, keep a little flame flickering,
and they go on and on and on with people saying, Why are you
wasting your time? And then, overnight, everything changes and
people say, How did it happen? Overnight not gradually, what
was impossible becomes inevitable. I saw it in Mississippi, we saw
it in the Soviet Union.
People who used to talk about freedom in the Soviet Union were
put down, why are you bothering me with Captive Nations Week
resolutions when we have got to negotiate nuclear treaties with
this power that is going to be around for a thousand years.
So I have to say about your leadership in keeping that flame of
freedom flickering, that there will come that overnight day that
dictatorships will fall and people will say, Where did this come
from? We never assumed that it would happen. When it does, your
leadership, in my judgment, will have been an irreplaceable component of that development, and it is going to happen. Thank you.
Chairman SMITH. I beg to differ. It is the people at this table
that are making all the difference in the world, and the people that
are incarcerated and struggling every day in China. But thank you
so much.
I appreciate it again. We will continue on. Our next hearing, as
I said, is on June 25. It will be in my Subcommittee on Human
Rights and it will be on campuses like the NYU campus in Shanghai and others, whether or not that is a help or a hindrance. So
thank you so much.
We remember with prayer and deep awe those who suffered at
Tiananmen Square for a new China where freedom and democracy
flourish. God bless you all.
Without objection, the opening statement by Senator Marco
Rubio, our Cochairman, will be made a part of the record.
Thank you so much.
The hearing is adjourned.
[The prepared statement of Senator Rubio appears in the appendix.]
[Whereupon, at 12:15 p.m. the hearing was concluded.]

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APPENDIX

(37)

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PREPARED STATEMENTS

PREPARED STATEMENT

OF

TENG BIAO

JUNE 3, 2015

ITS TIME TO CHANGE CHINA POLICY

INFLUENCE OF TIANANMEN MASSACRE

Twenty six years have passed, but the killing did not end in 1989. Many innocent
citizens labeled Tiananmen thugs have been executed. In custody and repatriation
centers, prisons, reeducation through labor camps and various black jails, countless
deaths have been due to state violence. Citizens die at the scene of forced
demolitions, or under the iron fists of city management. Since 1999, at least 3,800
Falun Gong practitioners have been cruelly tortured to death. Since 2009, at least
140 Tibetans have self-immolated in protest of the authorities brutal domination.
Cao Shunli was tortured to death because of her participation in the Universal Periodic Review at UN in Geneva on behalf of independent citizens. As activists are captured and tortured and underground Christian churches and other religious groups
are persecuted, the gunfire of Tiananmen is echoing in the background.
The Tiananmen massacre sustained the one-party system. Since the Party showed
its true face in 1989, its ruthless treatment of the Chinese people has become even
more brazen. Partly because of not having unions and not having the freedom to
assemble and go on strike, there is the [economic] advantage of the lack of human
rights. Through government-business collusion and an extremely unequal redistribution, China has achieved its rapid economic rise.
But many social and political problems are behind this economic growth: pollution, ecological crises and widespread unsafe food products threaten this generation
and later generations. Extremely unequal income distribution causes China to become one of the countries with the greatest wealth disparity. Corruption spreads viciously. Clashes between citizens and authorities are increasingly intense. It is ever
more difficult to see hope for solutions to the problems of Uyghurs and Tibetans.
THE RECENT COMPREHENSIVE CRACKDOWN

The Chinese government never stopped its crackdown on peoples resistance.

Since Xi came to power, he issued a harsh comprehensive crackdown. More than
1500 human rights defenders have been arrested and detainedsome of them were
brave enough to promote political activities, but many did not touch politics. Environmental protection, LGBT rights groups, feminist NGOs, rural libraries, think
tanksso many NGOs have been shut down. Some lawyers were disbarred, jailed,
tortured and disappeared. Some lawyers are facing disbarment.
Internet censorship is increasingly strict. Influential writers and bloggers are silenced or even jailed. VPNs are controlled and Gmail is blocked. Document No.9 reflects the severe control over ideology in universities, internet and media. Gao Yu,
70-year-old renowned journalist, was sentenced to seven years, accused of leaking
state secrets.
Three important laws have been drafted and will pass soon. The State Security
Law, Counter-Terrorism Law, and Foreign NGO Management Law. These laws are
abusive by nature and these laws give ample room for abuses. These laws will empower the domestic security forces and state security cadres. Foreign NGOs will be
seriously affected, and many will have to leave China. Public security bureaus, instead of civil affairs bureaus, will be given the power to ratify and supervise Foreign
NGOs. The Counter-Terrorism Law requires western IT companies to provide
encryption keys and source codes.
Very recently, a Uyghur Muslim was sentenced to six years in Khashgar for refusing to shave off his beard, while his wife was imprisoned for 2 years for wearing
a burqa, as part of a severe crackdown on religious extremism in Xinjiang.
The Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima has been disappeared for 20 years.
Some relatives and friends of Tibetan self-immolators were detained and sentenced
for assisting in the self-immolation.
In Zhejiang and other provinces, local authorities destroyed many crosses and
Christian churches, and some pastors were jailed. Falun Gong and other some religious groups members were detained and tortured in prison and Legal Education
Centers (an extra-legal detention system). Many lawyers were harassed when chal-

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lenging the Legal Education Centers, with at least four of them suffering broken
ribs from beatings.
Forced abortion and forced sterilization are still widespread, even though there
was a slight loosening of the one-child policy.
More forced demolitions have happened, and petitioners are facing harsher punishment than before.
In general, the current comprehensive crackdown is seen as the worst since the
1989 Tiananmen Massacre.
I dont deny that there are some improvements and reforms. In enumerating
progress being made in Chinas legal system, people have pointed out the lower
number of death sentences, the new criminal procedure law, the abolishment of reeducation through labor, reform of the local court system, the governments willingness to provide information, and the ongoing anti-corruption campaign. To begin
with, it is questionable whether or not most of the above are actually progress in
the legal system. Even if they are, the major driving force for these changes has
been the people, each a result of the probing, pressure and price paid by rights lawyers, democracy activists, and the countless Chinese on the lower rungs of society.
It is really ridiculous that some people think the credit should go to the dictators
and perpetrators of human rights abuses. The meaningful progress of the past two
decades is the growing civil society.
RETHINK CHINA POLICIES

There must be something wrong: so as to not inflame the Chinese Communist

Party (CCP), they do not dare to meet with the Dalai Lama. To gain Chinese markets, they disregard violations of human rights. To receive large orders for goods,
they one after another adopt appeasement policies towards the Chinese Communist
autocratic regime. Democratic countries join in the Asian Infrastructure Investment
Bank. Beijing watchers and researchers self-censor, even to the point that they defend despotism, to please the Party, or to not lose cooperation projects with China,
or scared they wont get a China entry visa. Confucius Institutes, scholars and students federations supported by Chinese Embassies, and other government-sponsored
programs, have eroded western academic freedom.
But now is the time for the West to rethink and adjust its policies towards China.
A strong repressive political power is threatening not just the Chinese people, but
the entire worldeconomically, politically, militarily and spiritually. Only promoting a truly free China comports with the long-term interests of humanity. Before
China is democratized, the world will not be safe. The CCP wont last forever, but
Chinese people will continue to live on that soil. The day will come when US must
deal with todays Chinese prisoners of conscience locked away and filled with suffering, Liu Xiaobo, Xu zhiyong, Ilham Tohti, Pu Zhiqiang, and others.
RECOMMENDATIONS

Pass an act to prohibit Chinese perpetrators who are responsible for human rights
violations from entering the US and other democratic countries. The Magnitsky Act
is a good example.
Support Chinese human rights defenders, political prisoners and real NGOs. Give
awards to prominent activists, just as the west has done with the Dalai Lama, Liu
Xiaobo and Hu Jia.
Stop the cooperation with Chinese government-organized NGOSor GONGOs
which are helping the Chinese government to suppress human rights and freedom.
For example, the All-China Lawyers Association and Chinese Human Rights Association.
Make sure that the Confucius Institutes, scholars and Students federations and
other government-sponsored programs do not violate academic freedom and human
rights.
Punish the American companies and individuals who help or cooperate with the
CCP to suppress freedom and human rights. Yahoo is one example when it provided
clients information to Chinese state security, leading to the long-term imprisonment
of several Chinese intellectuals.
Help to develop technology to circumvent internet censorship.
After 26 years, the symbolism and meaning inherent in that world-famous picture
still need understanding: a young person solitarily standing in front of a tank, it
communicated the terror and bloodiness of tyranny, and communicated Chinese peoples resolute and brave resistance to tyranny.History will require us to answer one
question: Did we stand on the side of the Tankman or on the side of the tank?
Thank you very much for hearing me. Your ideas, your voices and your votes will
influence China, and bring more freedom and human rights to this planet.

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PREPARED STATEMENT

OF

LISA PENG

JUNE 3, 2015

PASSIVE ACCEPTANCE, ACTIVE SCRUTINY

Resolved: The United States is justified in intervening in the internal political
processes of other countries to attempt to stop human rights abuses.
This was the 2013 topic at the City Club of Clevelands Annual High School Debate Championship featuring Lincoln-Douglas debate, a one-on-one form of debate
centered on the morality and ethics of a value proposition. Each year, the City Club
of Cleveland provides two high school debaters the opportunity to debate in a room
historically renowned for celebrating the freedom of speech. As I researched the
topic of human rights abuses in preparation for the debate, I reflected on the moral
obligation of countries to protect human rights and the fundamental role human
rights ought to play in foreign relations. I learned that despite such a moral obligation, it is easy to stand by as human rights are abused; it is easy to passively accept
human suffering. This topic was personal for me because my father, Peng Ming, is
serving a life sentence in a Chinese prison, branded a criminal by the Chinese government because of his work advocating for human rights.
My journey to advocate for the release of my father and for human rights in
China began two years ago with a debate topic that piqued my interest in learning
about those rights and about my own father. I had always known that I am his mirror image and that we both share a love for the art of debate, but, beyond that,
I did not know much else. After all, my last memory of him was from eleven years
ago. Thus, I began to piece together a timeline of my fathers life and my familys
journey of escape to America.
My father, Peng Ming, is an environmentalist, an economist, and a human rights
activist. He is the author of The Fourth Landmark, a book on Chinas economic and
political growth that was sponsored by the Ford Foundation. He was also the founder of China Development Union, a think tank established to address the censored
topics of rule of law and human rights. However, in 1999, the Chinese government
shut down the think tank and sentenced my father to 18 months of labor camp. His
crime? Passionately advocating for human rights and freedom in China. Upon his
release, the government wire-tapped our house, began following our car, and even
threatened my father with a second arrest. It became too dangerous to continue living in China, and so my family decided to flee political persecution.
We eventually made it to Thailand, where we were granted UN Refugee Status.
On August 29th, 2001, we landed in the United States, the land that stood for us
as a beacon of freedom, human rights, and rule of law. For the first time, we experienced freedom of expression and justice not as values confined to an underground
think tank, but rather as values championed by a nation.
In the United States, my father continued his human rights work. In 2004, he
traveled to Thailand to establish a safe haven for political refugees. However, he
was lured to Myanmar, kidnapped by Chinese secret police, and quickly sentenced
to life in prison. The United Nations Working Group for Arbitrary Detention has
determined that the deprivation of my fathers liberty is in contravention to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Furthermore, my father is a U.S.-based dissident with UN refugee status who escaped political persecution in China. Therefore, his kidnapping is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement, which forbids
the return of a victim of persecution to his persecutor. My father has also been deprived of his right to due process, as he was denied access to a lawyer and a jury
of his peers, rights we take for granted here in the United States.
That Lincoln-Douglas debate resolution prompted my journey to discover who my
father is and the values for which he stands. While I had the privilege to debate
in a room that celebrates the freedom of speech, my father remains locked in a room
built to stifle and punish prisoners of conscience. It has been a decade during which
I have been privileged to receive an American education and learn about freedom,
democracy, and justice, but a decade during which my father has remained imprisoned for fighting to secure those very same values. As an American citizen, I cannot
merely stand by and passively accept the denial of these fundamental freedoms.
In the past two years, I worked with members of Congress, written op-eds and
essays on my fathers story, and testified before the Taiwan Parliament, the European Union Parliament, and the United States Congress to advocate for my fathers
freedom and for the freedom of thousands of other political prisoners in China.
Although the support from US congressmen has give me great hope for my fathers release, I know that his case is only the tip of the iceberg. There remain thousands of prisoners of conscience and innocent Chinese civilians who suffer the same

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denial of basic freedoms. If we dont speak up, there will remain no hope for human
rights in China, and activists like my father will continue to suffer.
Sadly, the human rights issue is one that is easily ignored in light of pressing
economic concerns. China has become the worlds second largest economy and a
major trading partner of the United States. Powerful economic interests want us to
turn a blind eye to Chinas human rights record. Respecting Americas values and
standing up for human rights has never been easy. And it is not easy now. But isnt
this what the promise of America is really about?
Though I am no politician or expert in this field, I have learned through LincolnDouglas debate that human rights are the foundation from which meaningful and
effective discussions of economics and politics must proceed. In fact, these are the
same values and fundamental freedoms on which our great nation was founded. And
as someone who was rescued, raised, and educated by this country, I feel that I owe
the United States my utmost gratitude. However, gratitude for ones country is not
demonstrated by passive acceptance of our countrys actions, but in active scrutiny.
We show our gratitude and love for our nation by holding it to the highest of standards, the standards on which it was founded.
In doing so, I have realized that the issue of human rights is not only political
it is personal. It is a personal commitment to speak up. It is a refusal to remain
silent. It is acting on the principles that we read and write about. It is the efforts
of people like you who speak up and take a stand on human rights that give me
hope for the future. They give me hope for the possibility of telling my father in
person how much we have all cared about him and his dream for Chinas future.
They give me hope for the possibility of securing human rights in China, and for
paying the utmost respect to the values on which our own great country was founded, the values for which I hope it will always stand.
PREPARED STATEMENT

OF

HO PIN

JUNE 3, 2015

Representative Smith and Senator Rubio:

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to stand here today and give voice to
a brave Chinese journalist, Ms. Gao Yu, who has recently been imprisoned on fictitious charges for the third time. The seventy-one-year-old Gao Yu merely fulfilled
her duty as a journalist and shared the truth that she knew with the public. Gao
Yus case is not isolated. More and more writers, thinkers, and human rights lawyers are being illegally detained or imprisoned. They include Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, economist lham Tohti, writer Xu Zhiyong, lawyer Pu Zhiqiang. The
list goes on.
Over the years, many people have stood in this very spot, urging the world to pay
attention to Chinas human rights abuses. But, this solitary light in the darkness
has not been able to illuminate Chinas blatant violations or pierce through the
smog shrouding all the injustices. Therefore, I dont want to go that route again and
focus solely on Chinas human rights issues or to condemn the Chinese government
like others have done before. I want to raise some questions instead.
With its deteriorating human rights records, why is China getting stronger by the
day? Why are Chinese leaders getting more popular in the international community? Is China building its national strength for the sole purpose of jockeying for
the number one position with the United States? Will China engage in a war with
the United States and its Asian neighbors such as Japan and Philippines? Will the
world return to a cold war?
These are not new questions. American experts have already provided some answers. Some scholars believe that there is a secret bamboozling department within
the Communist Party. It has designed strategies that have successfully deceived the
world and gained China several decades of time to develop. Some say the rule of
the Chinese Communist Party is already approaching its end and the regime is on
the verge of collapsing. Others claim that US-China relations have deteriorated to
a critical point and that the US should throw China some candies to lure it back
to the right track.
So what are my views?
First, I believe that China has risen, and it has, as advertised, risen peacefully.
China is the worlds No.2 economy and has splashed huge amount of investment
across the globe. Millions of wealthy Chinese travelers flock to every famous tourist
site and the most expensive department stores. It would be impossible to close your
eyes and ignore Chinas rise. The only thing China has yet to achieve is the number
one position in the world.

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At the same time, Chinas rise has not led to any wars. Even though the Chinese
army has been acting like a belligerent hormone-raging teenager in the South and
East China Seas over the last few years, I dont think the Chinese leadership has
plans or the desire to start a war in Asia. Especially when they are not psychologically prepared to lose a war. The most arrogant and bold military commanders
can merely strike a pose through minor incursions or the intimidation of the militarily weak Philippines. With the exception of its strategic missile defense systems,
which aims to deter, rather than invade, the Chinese army doesnt yet have the ability to project its power around the globe. Even in the Pacific region, Chinese navy
and air forces are not capable of a sustaining war against Japan and the US.
In other words, China lacks the ability to launch a large-scale war in the Pacific
theater in the foreseeable future, not to mention launching a world war like the
Nazi Germany did. China does not have the capability, nor the guts. Its not their
intention. There is no Adolf Hitler in China. More importantly, the Chinese leadership doesnt see the necessity.
In addition, China has no plans to engage in a cold war with the West, United
States included. The current political system in China cannot be defined in conventional terms. Its neither socialism, nor capitalism. Its not an empire in the traditional sense. It is a mongrel. One of the most famous maxims of Deng Xiaoping
states that It doesnt matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches
mice. Therefore, the end justifies the means. While this pragmatic philosophy has
contributed to Chinas rapid economic growth, it also turned the Chinese political
system into a two faced monster the likes of which one normally sees only in computer games. Like the legendary cat that has nine lives, its adaptable and resilient.
As a consequence, many incomprehensible things have happenedthe ruling
Communist Party has defied expectation and lived on. The government can blatantly repeat something that is universally acknowledged as lies. For example, the
Communist Party is promoting an anti-West agenda in its internal documents. The
Communist Partys propaganda machine distorts truths about Western democracies
to prevent the pursuit of democratic values by its citizens and to threaten its citizens who are trying to demand the rights to select their own leaders, criticize their
governments and use the law to protect themselves. On the other hand, the Communist Party has long abandoned socialist theories. Many leaders are big fans of
Western democratic societies. They send their children to study in the West or secretly help their relatives who intend to emigrate. Some view the fact that they can
visit the West as a badge of honor. I have met and talked with many Chinese officials when they traveled in the U.S., and hardly anyone was a true opponent of
Western values. On the contrary, they all agree that a democratic system can guarantee fairness and bring stability to the country.
In other words, the Chinese leaders have no intention of building another Berlin
Wall. Neither do they plan to start a cold war with the West. They have no desire
to impose their systems on the West because they cant even define the kind of political system China has. There is no Stalin in China and nobody wishes to be his disciple. President Xi Jinping has heaped praise on Putin, but his praise has its own
purpose. President Xi admires Putins personal power. It is true that the Chinese
president stood side by side with Putin to inspect the troops in the Red Square a
few days ago, but that doesnt mean that China and Russia can establish an alliance
against the U.S. Mistrust of Russian by the Chinese government and people is deepseated and hard to dispel.
Thirdly, the conflicts between China and the West are not about ideology or cultures. The mainstream religion, in China has long served as a tool to unite all factions of society. Religion, a tamed pussycat, is becoming an integral part of the Communist Party. The Chinese are not capable of starting a holy war against the West.
They wouldnt even dare. Nationalism is nothing more than lip service. The Chinese
leaders use this type of neurotic nationalism to cover up their empty and phony ideology. No leaders would want nationalism to become fanatical and get out of control.
Overheated nationalism could set the house of the party on fire.
If the above are true, why are we worried? We should not only be concerned but
also alarmed. Its not a matter of which country will be the worlds number one. The
changes in China will impact the world. If China can integrate itself into the civilized world, in which peoples rights and self-determination are respected, the world
will enter a new era. Mankind can truly base their thinking and policies on a common destiny. If the Chinese Communist Party, with its terrible records on human
rights and stellar results in economic development, is allowed to continue, it will
not only bring disaster to the Chinese people, but also destruction to the whole
world. It is neither an actual war with weapons, nor is it a cold war between two
ideological camps. Its not a conflict of cultures and value systems. Chinas mongrel
and pragmatic nature has made its system more adaptable and more powerful. Its

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ability to destroy the worlds political and biological environments and to spread
such destructive power is beyond even its own expectation. A virus starts with just
a few patients. Soon, it spreads to every corner, causing a worldwide outbreak. This
is what China will do to the world - destroy the very foundation of human freedom.
What I want to emphasize is that this is not what the Chinese leadership envisioned thirty years ago. Neither is it the political ambition of the current leadership.
The current situation is the consequence of human weakness, the short-sightedness
of politicians of the West, the insatiable greed of unscrupulous capitalists and the
distorted social and political structure in China. Together, they have created such
a virus, or at the very least, they have provided opportunity for it to mutate and
spread.
Two months after the Chinese government brutally cracked down on the student
movement in China on June 4th, 1989, President George Bush provided prompt support for Deng Xiaoping through his secret envoy. The collapse of the former Soviet
Union and East European Communism made many politicians in the West complacent. They forgave and accepted the paranoid and humble Chinese leaders. In return, Deng Xiaoping and his successors initiated open door and economic reform
policies. These reforms didnt bring any political progress. Instead, China took advantage of the technology from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the West and the benefits
of the WTO to boost its economy at the cost of social equality and its environment.
Once the Communist Party strengthened its power through its strong economy, it
went on to undermine Western opposition to Chinas human rights practices.
Now, the Chinese leadership practically doesnt care at all about the pressure
from Western public opinion because politicians and businessmen from around the
world are salivating at Chinas immense purchasing power, investment and markets. Its no exaggeration to say that today, Chinese leaders are the most well-received, honored guests in a majority of countries worldwide; China is the destination
for many of the worlds elite who thirst for gold.
Beijing tightly controls the freedom of the press. They could cut off Google and
Yahoo anytime; theyd refused visas for New York Times journalists, and blocked
access to Twitter and Facebook. All without impunity. While at the same time, they
can set up any media they would like in the US. They provide free trips to Chinese
language media chieftains in the West to receive training in China, and they even
hire secret hackers to attack independent Chinese media outlets overseas. Ironically, China, which screens, censors and bans any print and electronic publication,
has been invited to serve as the country of honor at book fairs in Frankfurt, London,
and New York!
Hollywood is the epitome of free American culture; filmmakers are free to ridicule,
mock, and criticize American politicians and government officials such as senators,
judges, and the president, without fear of persecution. But in their pursuit of Chinas box office dollars, Hollywood executives have consciously decided to steer clear
of any criticism of the Chinese government. Despite this, American movies are still
censored in China, and some are not allowed at all.
Given these circumstances, does Chinas leadership have to risk it all and start
a war? Does China have to close its doors once again and restart the cold war
against the West? They can get everything they need and they can reject everything
they dont want.
The problem lies in the fact that the West pursues short-term economic interests
by ignoring the worsening of Chinese peoples rights. Western corporations scrambled to do business with China regardless of the record of human rights violations.
A desire for profit with no social conscience encourages the growth of this new style
of politics in China. It is tantamount to striking the core of every lesson Chinese
officials learned about conducting their political business worldwide. Meanwhile, the
cash that the Communist Party waves in their hands has made it possible for the
China virus to spread unencumbered in the world, causing the value of Western
freedom to grow weaker, feebler, and more and more susceptible to illness.
China was never a threat before. It was the Western world that has made the
Chinese leadership think the West could easily be threatened.
So what can we conclude? No one can figure it out, because no one is consciously
aware; to a certain extent, we have all been infected by the virus. Otherwise, we
would not feel so confused and lost, so powerless. And because of our inaction and
complacency, Gao Yu, Liu Xiaobo, Ilham Tohti, Wang Bingzhang, Xu Zhiyong, and
Pu Zhiqiang are languishing in prisons. Chinese citizens who died 26 years ago in
Tiananmen Square and now lie in the ground have turned into lonely ghosts wandering in the wild. Dawn has yet to arrive in China. If we continue along this
muddy, murky road, we will also be swallowed by the darkness.
The reason that Im standing here today is that the scene I saw 26 years ago in
Tiananmen Square still has not faded from my memory. I share the pain of those

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who lost friends and relatives in Tiananmen square. I firmly believe that things
could change if America were to wake up from its vacant and passive view of China.
America is not a narrow-minded nationalist empire. America represents the values
established by people who pursue the dream of freedom. This means that America
is destined to be responsible for people who are pursuing similar dreams in other
countries. I am not advocating war between China and the US. I absolutely dont
want confrontation between China and the US. I dont think it is necessary for another Pearl Harbor to wake up the American people. I hope that America will become the driving force for democracy and human rights in China. The very least
we can do is to take actions that will not encourage the continued growth of a dangerous political virus in China that values cash more than freedom and human
rights. We can, and should, work to assure the Chinese people their dignity, to assure a long-term friendship between the US and China, and to assure the security
of the cornerstone of freedom for the whole world.
*

[From the New York Times, April 28, 2015]

GAO YUS REAL CRIME

(By Ho Pin)

NEW YORKOne evening in June 2013, I received a call from a man who identified himself as an official for the Chinese Communist Partys Propaganda Department in Beijing. He asked me to publish an internal party directive on Mingjing,
a Chinese-language news portal I run out of New York.
Western media had already reported on the key segments of the directive, known
as Document No.9. Many analysts saw it as President Xi Jinpings attempt to adopt
a traditional leftist and anti-West agenda.
The caller claimed that Document No.9 was merely a routine directive that analyzed new political trends and that journalists should not read too much into it. By
sending me the full text, the official said he intended to provide a proper context.
The political situation in China isnt all that bad, he told me.
I wasnt sure whether the call was part of a deliberate leak with tacit approval
from the senior leadership or an individual acting alone. He sent me the document,
and though I thought that its significance might have been overblown in the earlier
press accounts, I believed it offered a rare glimpse of the inner workings of the Chinese government. I verified its authenticity and published it in Mingjing Magazine
in July 2013.
In April 2014, Gao Yu, a journalist friend, disappeared in Beijing. The next month
I was shocked to learn that she had been arrested for allegedly leaking Document
No.9 to me via Skype. The police claimed to discover on her computer three digital
copies of the paper, which they used as evidence against her. Ms. Gao countered
that she had downloaded them from the Internet and that they were slightly different from what I posted online.
Earlier this month, Ms. Gao, 71, was sentenced to seven years in jail for leaking
state secrets. The judge based his conviction chiefly on her confession, which she
retracted because, she said, it was given after threats against her son by the police.
Did the propaganda official leak the document to me with the intent to frame her,
I wondered. Or, did the police simply find a convenient excuse to lock up Ms. Gao,
who had been blacklisted because her writing had frequently appeared on overseas
websites? I chose to believe the latter.
Document No.9, written in a typical jargon-studded language, warns party leaders
against seven political perils, including the promotion of constitutional democracy,
universal values, civil society and Western-style press freedom.
As a publisher of United States-based magazines about Chinese politics, I frequently receive news tips and government documentsa melange of truth and rumorsfrom Chinese officials, scholars and business people. Some expose scandals
within the government out of a sense of justice, while others aim to advance a political agenda or to smear political opponents. One thing is certain: The deep throats
know that Chinas senior leaders care about what the overseas news media reports
about them.
I have known Ms. Gao since the late 1980s, when we were both journalists for
state media organizations. In China, where most journalists are mouthpieces of the
party, she has kept her independence and paid a hefty price: She was put in jail
in 1989 for her support for the 1989 student protest movement, and again in 1993
because of her connection with a Hong Kong magazine. In recent years, Ms. Gaos
commentaries and analyses published in the West have offered valuable insights

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into Chinese politics, especially during the internal wrangling surrounding Bo Xilai,
the former Politburo member purged in a cloud of scandal in 2012.
Ms. Gao frequently gives voice in her articles to the liberal and moderate factions
within the party that have become disillusioned with President Xi Jinping, the man
whom they called Chinas Vladimir Putin. Document No.9 was reportedly directed
at this group. But Ms. Gao has never allied herself with any political factions.
In 2012, when Mr. Xis relatives sought her help in clarifying Western media reports about his familys finances, she agreed and presented their views through
Mingjing. At the same time, she was not afraid of speaking out against Mr. Xi. In
a private talk, she described China under Mr. Xi as a combination of a modern-day
Nazi and Stalinist state.
Before Ms. Gaos trial in November 2014, I drafted an affidavit detailing how I
had received Document No.9 from a party propaganda official. The Chinese Consulate in New York refused my notarized statement. I then FedExed it to Ms. Gaos
defense attorney, but the Beijing Third Intermediate Peoples Court excluded my
testimony in its deliberation.
If the leadership punished Ms. Gao to intimidate future leakers, their efforts are
in vain. As long as the Chinese public craves Chinese news from overseas, and
trusts Western media over state-controlled propaganda, Chinas elite will continue
to feed Western journalists exclusives. Our stories will influence Chinese politics
more than ever as factions compete to smear their opponents, intensify power struggles and hasten changes within the party.
Ms. Gaos real crime had nothing to do with leaking Document No.9. She offended
the authorities by speaking out against government policies. Even though Mr. Xi
has recently announced plans to make the legal system more transparent, Ms. Gaos
conviction shows that nothing has changed under a dictator who cannot abide dissenting views.
The case also reflects Chinas increasing arrogance toward the West, which is increasingly tolerant of Beijings growing human rights violations and nationalistic behavior. Corporations are caving in to Chinese demands, placing short-term business
gains ahead of principles, thus confirming to China the diminishing influence of the
West. Consequently, the Chinese government feels free to imprison and bully Chinese and foreign journalists. Standing up to China will not only guard basic human
values, but protect Western economic interests. No business is safe in a totalitarian
country.
Gao Yu has sacrificed her personal freedom three times for the cause of free
speech because it is the cornerstone of all freedoms.
Ho Pin, the founder of Mirror Media Group, and Wenguang Huang, who translated this essay from the Chinese, are co-authors of A Death in the Lucky Holiday
Hotel: Murder, Money, and an Epic Power Struggle in China.
A version of this op-ed appears in print on April 29, 2015, in The International
New York Times.

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56
PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. CHRISTOPHER SMITH, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM
NEW JERSEY; CHAIRMAN, CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA
JUNE 3, 2015

Twenty-six years ago the world watched as millions of Chinese gathered to peacefully demand political reform and democratic openness. The hopes and promises of
those heady days ended with needless violence tears, bloodshed, arrests and exile.
Mothers lost sons, fathers lost daughters, and China lost an idealistic generation
to the tanks that rolled down Tiananmen Square on June 4th, 1989.
Tiananmen Square has come to symbolize the persistent and brutal lengths the
Chinese Communist Party will go to remain in power. This event has done more
to negatively shape global perceptions of China than any other in recent history.
We remember the Tiananmen massacre here in Congress because of its enduring
impact on U.S.-China relations. We remember it also because an unknown number
of people died, were arrested, and exiled for simply seeking universally recognized
freedoms. We also remember Tiananmen because so many people were arrested last
year for trying to commemorate the anniversary in China.
We remember this date each year because it is too important to forget and because it is too dangerous to commemorate in China.
The Chinese government should allow open discussion of the Tiananmen protests
and end the enforced amnesia surrounding the events of 1989. And, more importantly, the Chinese government should take responsibility for the national tragedy
that occurred on June 3rd and June 4th, 1989.
Sadly, it seems that a China lead by President Xi Jinping will not take such responsibility. President Xi and top Communist Party leaders regularly unleash bellicose attacks on universal values, Western ideals, and revisionism of the Partys
history.
The domestic screws on dissent have tightened considerably since Xi Jinping assumed the Presidency. Over 230 people have been detained for their human rights
advocacy and peaceful efforts at political reform. A number some rights groups are
calling the largest crackdown in two decades.
The Chinese government rounds up not only reformers, but those who defend
them. It views most Uyghurs as security threats and then jails Uyghur intellectuals
peacefully seeking ethnic reconciliation. It not only smothers internet freedom and
its domestic media but threatens foreign journalists and spurs self-censorship from
Harvard Square to Hollywood.
The Chinese government also threatens foreign citizens or foreign institutions
who speak out for greater human rights. The family members of Canadas Miss Universe, for example, were threatened for her outspokenness about human rights.
Also, Chinas new and troubling NGO law, could bar an American university from
China, or even detain its representatives in China, if a campus student group stages
a protest in the United States against the Chinese governments treatment of Tibetans, Christians, or Falun Gong; the detention of Liu Xiaobo, or the criminal tragedy
of Chinas 35 year One-Child Policy.
U.S. policy must support Chinese advocates who promote human rights and political reform and stand firm for U.S. interests in greater freedom and democracy in
China.
Our strategic and moral interests coincide when we support human rights and democracy in China. A more democratic China, one that respects human rights, and
is governed by the rule of law, is more likely to be a productive and peaceful partner
rather than strategic and hostile competitor.
We should remember this fact as we watch China building bases and threatening
free and open seas lanes in the East and South China Sea.
The United States must also make strong appeals to Chinas self-interest. The
rule of law, freedom of the press, an independent judiciary, a flourishing civil society
and accountable officials would promote all of Chinas primary goalseconomic
progress, political stability, reconciliation with Taiwan, good relations with America,
and international stature and influence.
At the same time, the United States must also be willing to use political and economic sanctions to respond to gross violations of human rights in Chinatorture,
prolonged and arbitrary detention, forced abortions and sterilizations, psychiatric
experimentation or organ harvesting from prisoners.
That is why I introduced yesterday the China Human Rights Protection Act of
2015 (H.R. 2621). The bill will deny U.S. entry visas and issue financial penalties
to any Chinese official who engages in gross violations of human rights.
The United States must show leadership in this regard and send a strong message. The worst violators of the rights of the Chinese people, those who abuse uni-

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versal freedoms with impunity, should not prosper from access to the United States
and our economic or political freedoms.
It is tempting to be pessimistic about Chinas future and the future of U.S.-China
relations. I am not pessimistic, but hopeful. Constant repression has not dimmed
the desires of the Chinese people for freedom and reform.
While the hopes of the Tiananmen Square demonstrators have not yet been realized, their demands for universal freedoms continues to inspire the Chinese people
today and has passed on to a new generation.
We have with us today participants of the Tiananmen protests of 1989 and new
generations of advocates for democratic openness and human rights. They fight for
universal freedoms, they fight for the release of their fathers and families, and they
fight for reform and a future China that protects human rights. It is the new generation that will inspire change in China.
I believe that someday China will be free. Someday, the people of China will be
able to enjoy all of their God-given rights. And a nation of free Chinese men and
women will honor, applaud, and celebrate the heroes of Tiananmen Square and all
those who sacrificed so much, and so long, for freedom.
PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. MARCO RUBIO, A U.S. SENATOR FROM FLORIDA;
COCHAIRMAN, CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA
JUNE 3, 2015

Twenty-six years ago this week, student-led popular protests gripped Beijing.
Spurred by the death of a prominent reformer, thousands gathered in Tiananmen
Square in April 1989 seeking greater political freedom. Their numbers swelled as
the days passed not only in the capital but in cities and universities across the nation until more than a million, including journalists, workers, government employees and police, joined their ranks making it the largest political protest in the history of communist China.
Late in the evening of June 3, the Army opened fire on peaceful counter-revolutionary protesters. The bloodshed continued into June 4. To this day the precise
number of resulting casualties is unknown and more than a quarter century later
there has been no movement toward a public accounting of the events of that week.
Rather, those seeking to commemorate the dead are harassed, detained, and arrested.
Perhaps the most iconic image to emerge from the Tiananmen Massacre, is the
so-called tank man the small lone figure, shopping bags in hand, who jockeyed
to position himself in the path of an advancing line of Peoples Liberation Army
tanks. His actions flew in the face of every human impulse to avoid impending danger. The tank man remains an enigmahis fate unknown. Some speculate imprisonment, others execution. Still others venture that he is alive today, unaware of his
fame because of the Orwellian lengths that the Chinese government Internet censors have gone to block any searches of the events surrounding June 4.
Despite the fact that Chinas rulers revealed the true nature of their regime that
day, too many of our political and business elite have been content with the status
quo in China, especially as it relates to the denying of basic human rights and liberties. In fact, U.S. policy has aimed at engaging with the Chinese Communist
Party, surrendering American leverage and principles.
Twenty-six years later, repression continues to be the order of the day and the
aspirations of the Tiananmen generation remain unfulfilled. President Xi Jinpings
presidency has been marked by what experts describe as the most intense crackdown in years. The organization Chinese Human Rights Defenders reported in
March that the governments persecution of rights defenders was as severe as it has
been since the mid-1990s. The list of those arrested and harassed is extensive, including Uighur economist Ilham Tohti, Tibetan Buddhist leader Tenzin Delek
Rinpoche, Tie Liu, Pu Zhiqiang, and Chen Kegui. Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu
Xiaobo remains in jail and his wife Liu Xia suffers under house arrest, as does
human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.
A report released by Freedom House earlier this year found that since Xi Jinping
came to power the regime has employed harsh tactics to dominate online discourse,
obstruct human rights activism, and pre-empt public protests findings which are
routinely echoed by Chinese dissidents. There is deep concern within civil society
about the draconian new NGO law now under consideration in the Chinese legislature. This law would severely restrict the operations of foreign NGOs.
The regime also is strengthening its grip on Hong Kong, denying the people of
Hong Kong their promised right to freely choose their leaders. And Chinas growing

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repression at home is being watched closely by its neighbors as Beijing flexes its
military capabilities and reasserts illegitimate territorial claims threatening regional security. Chinas neighbors realize that how a nation treats its own citizens
is indicative of more than just a countrys internal situation.
Despite this grim picture, I believe change is coming to China. Systems of government which are built on repression do not stand the test of time. Even with Chinas
economic growth, we have yet to see political openness follow. While the road to reform in China is uncertain, American support for the ideals which are at the heart
of our own experience in self-governance ought to be a cornerstone of U.S. foreign
policy.
In her inaugural trip as Secretary of State in 2009, Hillary Clinton opined, en
route to China, that contentious issues like human rights cant interfere with the
global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis.
Human rights should be fully integrated into every level of our bilateral relationship
with the Chinese government, and repressive governments the world over. It is always in Americas interest to support the expansion of democracy and its institutions.
For too long, China has gotten a free pass. With the approaching U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue the president has an opportunity to prioritize these
issuesto charge every participating U.S. government agency to bring human rights
to the forefront with their Chinese counterparts, to present them with lists of political prisoners and press, by name, for their unconditional release. The Administration can take proactive steps today to impose visa bans on Chinese government officials who are perpetrators of grave human rights abuses.
Twenty-six years ago several Tiananmen art students constructed a magnificent
paper mache statue of the so-called goddess of democracy, in the hopes of bolstering
the fledgling protest movement. It was ultimately destroyed by soldiers clearing the
square, but not before its creators authored a declaration explaining their work. It
read in part, On the day when real democracy and freedom come to China, we
must erect another Goddess of Democracy here in the Square, monumental, towering, and permanent. We have strong faith that that day will come at last.
Helping the Chinese people reach that day is not just our moral duty as a free
people, but will have a profound effect on the state of freedom in the world and on
global security. We must keep the faith with the Tiananmen generation and work
toward the realization of their dream for generations to come.

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SUBMISSION
CHINA

IN

1989

AND

FOR THE

RECORD

2015: TIANANMEN, HUMAN RIGHTS,

AND

DEMOCRACY

JUNE 3, 2015

Witness Biographies
Dr. Teng Biao, a well-known Chinese human rights lawyer, a Harvard
University Law School Visiting Scholar, and Co-founder, the Open Constitution Initiative
Dr. Teng Biao is a well-known Chinese human rights lawyer, a Harvard University Law School Visiting Scholar, and Co-founder, the Open Constitution Initiative.
He holds a Ph.D. from Peking University Law School and was a visiting scholar at
Yale Law School. He is interested in the research on human rights, judicial systems,
constitutionalism, and social movements. As a human rights lawyer, Teng is a promoter of the Rights Defense Movement and a co-initiator of the New Citizens Movement. In 2003, he was one of the Three Doctors of Law who complained to the
National Peoples Congress about unconstitutional detentions of internal migrants
in the widely known Sun Zhigang Case. Since then, Teng Biao has provided counsel in numerous other human rights cases, including those of rural rights advocate
Chen Guangcheng, rights defender Hu Jia, the religious freedom case of Cai
Zhuohua and Wang Bo, and numerous death penalty cases.
Lisa Peng, Daughter of Chinese democracy activist Mr. Peng Ming, freshman at Harvard, and TEDx speaker
Lisa Peng is the daughter of Chinese human rights and pro-democracy activist
Mr. Peng Ming who was kidnapped in Burma by Chinese secret police and sentenced to life in prison in 2004. Lisa was born in Beijing and suffered doubly as
a second child by being denied official legal recognition. In 2000, her family fled government persecution and was accepted by the United States as UN refugees in
2001. Lisa is working with the China Aid Association, the State Department, and
members of Congress to advocate for the release of her father and other prisoners
of conscience. She has shared her fathers story in a Plain Dealer Op-Ed and a
TEDx Talk. Lisa is a freshman at Harvard University, where she studies mathematics and political philosophy. Outside the classroom, Lisa is an op-ed writer for
The Harvard Crimson and a staff writer for the Harvard Salient, a member of the
John Adams Society, and a singer in the Radcliffe Choral Society.
Ho Pin, President and CEO of Mirror Media Group
Ho Ping, a former journalist and director of the news department at Shenzhen
News was originally from Hunan and participated in the 1989 student movement.
Ho left China for Canada after Chinese authorities started investigating him because of his writings and analysis of political events in China. Ho Ping established
Mirror Media Group in Canada in 1991 and the Chinese language news website
Duowei News in 1999. Ho sold the website to Hong Kong media mogul Yu Pun-hoi
in 2009 (Duowei has a news bureau in Beijing). Mirror Media Group currently includes five independent publishing houses, five magazines, three websites, a bookstore, and an online bookstore. Mirror Media Group has Chinese-language publication distributors in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and the United States. Ho Pin
has worked in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan with news and publishing
organizations as a reporter, editor, and executive.
Michael Horowitz, CEO of 21st Century Initiatives, a Washington D.C.
think tank
Michael Horowitz has led a broad range of human rights coalitions and has
played major roles in the passage of such human rights legislation as the International Religious Freedom Act, the North Korea Human Rights Act, the Trafficking
Victims Protection Act and the Sudan Peace Act. Mr. Horowitz has been especially
active on behalf of Tibetan Buddhists, Christians, Falun Gong believers, and
Uyghur Muslims. He also has provided vital assistance to organizations dedicated
to fighting Internet censorship and penetrating Chinas Great Fire Wall. He served
as General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget during the Reagan administration.
Dr. Yang Jianli, President, Initiatives for China/ Citizen Power for China
Dr. Yang Jianli is a scholar and democracy activist internationally recognized for
his efforts to promote democracy in China. He has been involved in the pro-democ-

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racy movement in China since the 1980s and was forced to flee China in 1989 after
the Tiananmen Square massacre. He holds PhDs in mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley and in political economy and government from Harvard Universitys Kennedy School of Government. In 2002, Dr. Yang returned to
China to support the labor movement and was imprisoned by Chinese authorities
for espionage and illegal entry. Following his release 2007 and his subsequent return to the U.S., Dr. Yang founded Initiatives for China, a.k.a. Citizen Power for
China, a nongovernmental organization that promotes Chinas peaceful transition to
democracy. In March, 2010 Dr. Yang co-chaired the Committee on Internet Freedom
at the Geneva Human Rights and Democracy Summit. In December 2011, Dr. Yang,
joined H.H. Dalai Lama and four other delegates, to attend Forum Democracy and
Human Rights in Asia, hosted by former Czech president, Vaclav Havel.

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